Golf courses always have been way of life for Dye

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer 11:15 PM Thursday, August 19, 2010

URBANA — At 84, Pete Dye still plays golf every once in a while, and, as he always has, he walks the course. He has never rode a cart — never has, never will.

Dye made his name as one of golf’s greatest course designers, but he got his start in the sport as a player and still is.

In 1943, as a senior at Urbana High School, Dye became the first — and still only — golfer from Champaign County to win a state championship in golf. He beat Marvin Kurjan, of Youngstown Rayen, in an 18-hole playoff in Columbus.

Dye, who now lives in Carmel, Ind., remembers he got into the sport because his dad loved it so much. His dad, Paul, built Urbana Country Club in 1923 on his mom’s family’s farm.

“I remember watering greens,” Dye said, “and when I was a little bigger pushing the lawn mower and when I was a little bigger cutting the greens.”

When World War II started, Dye was made groundskeeper at age 16. One day, he put too much sulphate ammonia fertilizer on the greens and burned them.

“My dad sent me off into the parachute infantry,” Dye said.

Dye served in the 82nd Airborne Infantry from 1944 until the end of the war in 1945. He attended Rollins College and met his wife, Alice, there. They were living in Indianapolis in the 1950s, where Pete was working in insurance. His golf career continued as he won the 1958 Indiana State Amateur. In 1957, he played in the U.S. Open and finished ahead of two young golfers named Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

Dye built on the early lessons he learned about golf courses at Urbana Country Club when he started designing courses in the 1960s. He and his sons, P.B. and Perry, have designed courses on five continents. Among Pete’s designs are Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits, which hosted the PGA Championship last weekend; Crooked Stick in Indianapolis; Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C.; and TPC at Sawgrass.

Dye, who became a great-grandfather this year for the first time, still is going strong today. He’s working on a new course at Indiana University and on nine new holes in the Dominican Republic. His sons now work independently, Dye said, and are friendly competitors.

Dye doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.

“I’m still digging up other people’s property,” he said.

Urbana’s state champions

Boys golf Result

1943 Pete Dye 144*

Track and field Result

1984 Paul Manuel pole vault 14-3

1985 Patrick Rogan 400 49.38

1996 Lucretia Corbin 100 12.3

1997 Lucretia Corbin 100 12.31

2006 Jasmine Picket long jump 19-2½

• Track titles came in Division II or Class AA