From our Friends at Golf Digest! Coming soon to Ackerman Course at Purdue

Thursday, 5/15/2014

Courses & Travel

This is what it looks like when Pete Dye redesigns a golf course

By Stephen Hennessey

Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, Ga., is undergoing a complete redesign from tees to greens. Six greenside bunkers will surround the green (middle).

Pete Dye was the golf course architect of discussion last week when the PGA Tour visited his TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course for the Players.
There's no rest for the 88-year-old Dye. He's active this week at the latest club he's redesigning.
Dye arrived on site this week at Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, Ga., about 25 minutes south of Savannah, where he's overseeing a $7 million-plus, year-long redesign along with architect Tim Liddy. Sod started being laid the last week of April, and Dye stopped by to get a look at the changes.
"There aren’t many golf courses from Florida all the way to Maine that have this ambience. It’s really something," Dye said on his visit.

Dye met with Ford Plantation folks and the construction team this week.

Dye originally designed the golf course, which was ranked No. 17 on Golf Digest's 2013-'14 Best in State ranking, in the 1980s. Most of the dirt has already been moved in the project, and the majority of grassing is happening over the next couple of months. Read More!

Big Ten Women's Championship Comes to The Fort!

Big Ten Conference Selects The Fort Golf Course
As Site of 2015 and 2016 Women’s Golf Championships  

For Immediate Release:May 22, 2014 

Contacts:Olivia Truby, Big Ten Conference, (847) 696-1010 

INDIANAPOLIS – The Big Ten Conference announced that The Fort Golf Course in Indianapolis, Ind., will be the site for the 2015 and 2016 Big Ten Women’s Golf Championships.  

The 2015 championships are April 24-26, 2015, while the 2016 event dates are April 22-24, 2016. 

Michigan State and Ohio State shared the 2014 Big Ten title as the championships were played at the Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Ind. Five Big Ten teams were selected to the NCAA Women’s Golf Regionals field in 2014 with three of those teams – Michigan State, Northwestern and Ohio State – advancing to the 2014 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships.  

The Fort

As part of the former Ft. Benjamin Harrison military base that was decommissioned in the early 1990s, the state of Indiana took over the facility as well as the surrounding 1800 acres. The wooded acreage was transformed into a state park. The golf course was redesigned by renowned architect Pete Dye and reopened in 1997. The Fort is consistently ranked by numerous national golf publications as one of the top facilities in Indiana. In 2014, GolfWeek magazine said that The Fort was the top ranked public golf course in the Indianapolis area and the highest ranked course not associated with an accompanying casino in the entire state. More information is available at TheFortGolfCourse.com.

About the Big Ten Conference: The Big Ten Conference is an association of world-class universities whose member institutions share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service. Founded in 1896, the Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in student-athletes’ lives and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness. The broad-based athletic programs of the 12 Big Ten institutions provide in excess of $141 million in direct financial aid to more than 8,200 student-athletes playing on more than 300 teams in 43 different sports. The Big Ten sponsors 26 official conference sports, 13 for men and 13 for women, and will add men’s and women’s lacrosse as the 27th and 28th official sports for the 2014-15 academic year. For more information, visit www.bigten.org.

 

The Prince of Dirt...Golf World Magazine



Mr. Dye at Gulfstream

Click here for a great article about Mr. and Mrs. Dye.

Thank You FortWayne.com

Indiana golf trail honors famed course designer Pete Dye

Dye designed all seven courses on the trail.

By Rod King of The News-Sentinel

MORE INFORMATION

Learn more For more information about Pete Dye Golf Trail courses, go to www.petedyegolftrail.com or to www.visitindiana.com for golf discounts and trip ideas.

Attention golfers of all skill levels: Two years ago, Indiana inaugurated a golf trail comprised of seven courses.
They range from scenic Culver on Lake Maxinkuckee and the college atmosphere in West Lafayette to Hamilton County suburbs and the urban experience in Indianapolis where one course has four holes inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The trail culminates at Golf Digest's 2010 Public Course of the Year at French Lick Resort.
All the courses have one thing in common: Each was designed by Indiana resident and legendary golf course architect Pete Dye, who resides at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, which he designed with his wife, Alice.
The Pete Dye Golf Trail is a collection of unique courses from the more than 20 around Indiana designed by Dye, who many consider to be the father of modern golf course architecture.
Three of the courses are in Indianapolis. They are Maple Creek Golf & Country Club, Brickyard Crossing Golf Course and The Fort Golf Course, the latter of which is located on the former Fort Benjamin Harrison military post — now Fort Harrison State Park.
Dye redesigned the Fort Harrison course for just $1. He provided his expertise for the same price to redesign the Kampen Golf Course at Purdue University in West Lafayette, and students in the Agriculture School provided the labor to move the dirt, create the huge waste bunkers and numerous ponds, and seed the fairways and greens.
The remaining three courses are Mystic Hills Golf Course in Culver, Plum Creek Golf Club in Carmel and the Pete Dye Course at French Lick.
All seven courses are unique and challenging. Gov. Mitch Daniels said at the golf trail announcement, “This trail is a treasure that will take visitors on an incredible golf journey throughout the state and showcase some of Pete's most prominent works.”
Be advised that the Pete Dye Course at French Lick costs $350 for 18 holes, another $30 for a caddie (everyone must have a caddie) and, of course, a generous tip for the caddie. The other courses on the trail range from $45 to $90 for 18 holes on a busy weekend.
Before getting into designing courses, Dye was an insurance salesman and a champion amateur golfer.
He won the Indiana State Amateur Championship in 1958 and was runner-up twice. He posted a better score in the 1957 U.S. Open than Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
His wife won nine Indiana State championships, two U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Golf Championships, the 1968 North & South Championship at Pinehurst, N.C., and two Canadian Senior Women's Championships.
The two of them worked together to build their first course, a nine-holer, south of Indianapolis called El Dorado, which now is known as Royal Oak Country Club. Their next venture was an 18-hole course they named Heather Hills; it's now Maple Creek Golf & Country Club.
In 1963, a tour of Scottish golf courses profoundly influenced Dye's subsequent designs. He began incorporating features such as pot bunkers, wooden bulkheads, undulating fairways and smaller greens.
Dye is only the fifth course architect to be honored by the World Golf Hall of Fame with the Lifetime Achievement Award.