World Golf Hall of Fame member Pete Dye, who designed some of the world’s most famous golf courses, is dead at age 94.
The PGA of America announced the news on Thursday, and its president, Suzy Whaley, released a statement in tribute of Dye.
“Pete Dye left an imprint on the world of golf that will be experienced for generations, painting wonderful pictures with the land that continue to inspire, entertain & challenge us,” Whaley wrote. “The PGA is saddened by the passing of this dear friend of the PGA Professional. Pete & his late wife Alice formed the greatest force in golf design history. The Dye family will forever be linked to many of the thrilling championships in PGA history & for something that they intended all along – that we embrace golf’s life values.”
Dye, who was born in Urbana, Ohio, and lived most of his life in Indianapolis, originally was an insurance man before transitioning into golf course design in the 1960s. Among his most notable designs were TPC Sawgrass, home of The Players Championship, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort in South Carolina, which has hosted both a Ryder Cup and a PGA Championship, and Whistling Straits, site of the 2020 Ryder Cup in Kohler, Wisconsin.
Dye used his vast powers of visual deception to create holes where desire and disaster often converge. Perhaps his most famous was the 17th-hole island green at TPC Sawgrass.
“Life is not fair, so why should I make a course that is fair?” Dye once said.
Dye received numerous awards for his work in the golf industry. The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America presented him the Old Tom Morris Award, its highest honor, in 2003. Dye was the 2004 recipient of the PGA Distinguished Service Award and in 2005 he was honored with the PGA Tour’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top,” Dye once said.
Dye’s wife and partner in course design, Alice, passed away Feb. 1, 2019.
