<p>Pete Dye was perhaps the most renowned golf course architect in the sport’s history, so when new ownership took over the Greenwood course containing the first nine holes Dye had ever designed, they felt it would be a fitting tribute to incorporate his name when they renamed the course.</p><p>But how to do it?</p><p>The inspiration came when Dye came to tour the course in the fall of 2007 to discuss a potential redesign.</p><p>Dye walked all 18 holes with his dog, Sixty; Brian Benham and Rich Riley, who had recently purchased the now member-owned club; and Brent Nicoson, who was the head pro there from 1996 to 2011. Shortly thereafter, a meeting was held to talk about a new name for the club, and a photo of that group walking the course was on the table.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>"We were sitting in a meeting, four or five of us, and we were talking about the walk with Dye that we had," Nicoson recalled. "I cannot remember who ended up coming up with it, but we were like, ‘What about Dye’s Walk?’ That’s what he does. That’s how he goes out; he doesn’t get on a cart, he doesn’t do anything. He walks everywhere with that dog — and that’s exactly what he did on both of our visits. He just went out and walked."</p><p>Dye, who passed away last week at the age of 94, left behind an unmatched legacy in the golf world. He and his late wife, Alice, designed some of the most well-known courses on the planet, including the TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course (best known for its famed island green) in Florida, Whistling Straits in Wisconsin and Crooked Stick in Carmel.</p><p>"I don’t think anybody that’s ever been associated with golf in Indiana has impacted the sport more than Pete Dye has," said Ted Bishop, general partner and general manager at The Legends Golf Club.</p><p>Of course, Dye didn’t just jump into course design on a whim. Though not as accomplished a player as his wife, he had a distinguished amateur golf career, qualifying for the 1957 U.S. Open and winning the 1958 Indiana Amateur, and his father had built a nine-hole course on family land in his home town of Urbana, Ohio.</p><p>But he proved to be even better at creating courses than he was at playing them.</p><p>The Dyes got their start in course design right here in Greenwood, designing a nine-hole course that opened as El Dorado Country Club in 1961 and now makes up one half of Dye’s Walk — and though he designed or co-designed courses in 28 states and eight foreign countries in his life, Pete Dye always seemed to take extra pride in the ones he did in his adopted home state of Indiana. Crooked Stick, Bishop said, "was his baby," the first championship course he ever created.</p><p>"No doubt, he and Alice both held Indiana in the highest regard," said Mike David, the president of the Franklin-based Indiana Golf Office. "I think they both felt like their roots were firmly entrenched in Indiana."</p><p>Hoosiers take just as much pride in Pete Dye as he did in being one of them.</p><p>"I think it’s special for us as golf professionals around the state to have the most well-known architect to be right from here," Nicoson said.</p><p>Erica Shepherd, a Center Grove graduate now playing college golf for defending NCAA women’s champion Duke, never met Dye in person but grew up on his debut course.</p><p>"Dye’s Walk, the only thing people outside of Indiana would know is that it’s the first nine holes that he ever designed," she said. "When I talk about my home course to people, that’s always the first thing I say about it, just because everyone knows who he is and how big of an impact that he had on the game."</p><p>David and Bishop both describe Dye as a highly intelligent man who could have done well in any field — he was a successful insurance salesman in Indianapolis before pursuing course design — but also very personable and down to earth. Bishop, who spent a great deal of time around Dye during his time working at the PGA of America, also thoroughly enjoyed Dye’s sense of humor, especially when it came to interactions with the pro players who were often stymied by his difficult ("Dye-abolical" was an often-used term) designs.</p><p>"There was a lot of back and forth between him and the players over the years," Bishop recalled. "A lot of that was good-natured, some of it was tongue-in-cheek — and I’m sure some of it, from the players’ standpoint, was out of frustration with the things he would create from a difficulty standpoint that they would have to deal with."</p><p>"He wants to take over your mind when he’s on the golf course," Nicoson added, "and I saw that firsthand, because we were out on a hole — this is the current No. 6 at Dye’s — and he didn’t design the front, but he’s like, ‘We need to change this hole a little bit; we need to be able to see those bunkers.’ There’s hidden bunkers out in the middle of the fairway that you can’t see, and we were like, ‘Well, how’s that going to change the hole?’ He’s like, ‘It’s not going to change the hole, but it’s going to change the player’s mind. They’re going to see those bunkers and be scared to death of those things. Right now, they can’t see them.’ That’s how he thought about things — he wanted you to really think your way around a golf course."</p><p>Though many of the challenges he put in front of the players might have gotten under their skin, there’s no question that he earned their respect.</p><p>Following Dye’s passing, Jack Nicklaus posted a statement on social media saying, among other things, that "Pete Dye was the most creative, imaginative and unconventional golf course designer I have ever been around. Pete would try things that nobody else would ever think of doing or certainly try to do, and he was successful at it."</p><p>Bishop shared one of his favorite stories about Dye and his unconventional nature, one that involved some changes to the layout at Crooked Stick several years ago. Supposedly, Dye couldn’t decide whether to put in a lake or a bunker to the right of the 16th green, so he consulted the club’s board and they wound up instructing him to put in a bunker.</p><p>The next morning, Dye proceeded to put in a lake instead. When asked by the president of the board why he did the lake instead of the bunker after the board had said the opposite, Dye replied, "Because the board has never been right!"</p><p>Though the redesign of Dye’s Walk that was discussed more than a decade ago never wound up happening, the course will always be known as the starting point for a remarkable career — and the walk that spawned the club’s current name will always stick with Nicoson, who remains awed by that brief glimpse of greatness.</p><p>"There was one point, I can picture it plain as day. It was out in the middle of what now is number 14, 16, 17," Nicoson said. "He stopped the (superintendent and I) — now, he’s the best golf course architect in the world — he’s like, ‘All right, boys, we need to stand here and come up with a new hole. I need to move this tee back and redesign this … but we need to squeeze a new par-3 in here somehow. Let’s figure this out.’ We started talking, and it wasn’t five minutes later that he looked up at both of us; I remember he stared at both of us and he’s like, ‘I’ve got it. I’ve already got it figured out.'</p><p>"He just has a vision that’s unbelievable."</p><p>The golf world, in Johnson County and beyond, is fortunate enough to continue enjoying that vision for years to come.</p>
