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Pete Dye.

You have to be a golfer to appreciate that name - he’s the true evil genious. Being a golfer and having a deep, rooting interest in golf course architecture, he’s my inspiration for my passion of golf course design.

And yet it’s bizarre how much, looking back on my golfing career, he has directly influenced me.

My first professional golf tournament was at a Pete Dye golf course - the Birckyard that has four holes inside the famous Indianapolis 500 speedway. It was a Senior PGA Tour event that I attended with my parents and brother.

My alma mater, Purdue University, has a golf course designed by him. In fact, he received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1998, the very same day I graduated. Looking back on my college career, I attempted to get a job on the construction crew building the golf course. If I have one regret in life, it’s that I didn’t insist that I be on that crew by being a huge pain in the butt until somebody gave me a job. I wouldn’t have cared what it was - digging ditches, laying sod, anything would have been fine with me.

I had the luck of meeting Pete Dye while playing golf on Purdue’s north course - the course he would eventually rip up and replace. It was one of those zin-like moments in life. There I was playing golf with a friend and I see a guy in an ivy cap with a dog walking the course by himself. I knew in an instant who it was - Pete Dye. I sent my friend on around while I went to bother Mr. Dye. He was out there walking the course - working on how the course would look and play. By the time I got to him, two others were making their way towards him - Tim Liddy (a design associate of Dye’s) and a student who was working on the course with the two of them. (I had to restrain myself from falling over dead for not having this student’s job! How could I have let this happen?) So I said hello to everybody and they went on about their business while I stood there and listened to the design changes Pete was looking for. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.

I got to meet Mr. Dye and his wonderful wife - Alice Dye - at the grand opening of the course. While the official grand opening was “invitation only” - and I didn’t have an invitation - that would never stop me from showing up for this. Outside the tent that had been set up, I ran into the pair. Talk about two of the most delightful people. Alice could not have been nicer - she talked to me as though we’d been friends for years. Again, a wonderful moment that I’ll always have.

As if that weren’t enough - two of my most memorable golf rounds took place on Pete Dye golf courses. I was not actually playing golf in the first one, but rather the caddy for my brother. My brother was attempting to qualify for the USGA juniour amatuer and the round was being played at Crooked Stick, Pete’s home course. My brother played a great round there, though I don’t recall his exact score, it was somewhere in the high-70’s. We had a great time going around the course. The other involves my brother and I as a team playing against two very good golfers (I should say that my brother is a very good golfer and I’m a decent golfer…) at Pete Dye’s Eagle Creek golf course on the north side of Indianapolis. It was a match we won.

Today is the start of the Players Championship - but it’s as much a celebration of Pete Dye as it is tournament golf.

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