Pete Dye.

• Author: Johnson, J. Douglas
• Position: Contracts of noted golf course architect - Cover Story

One of the world's great golf architects began his career in the Indiana cornfields.

Want to be a legend in golf? Tee off the first time when you are 5 years old at a course your dad designed and built on your mom's family farm.

That's what Pete Dye did. Ever since, he has walked the fairways from coast to coast, many of them on famous golf courses he built himself. Dye started his career in Indiana, where he has fathered nine courses and says "a new one south of Indianapolis is in the talking stages."

His next venue to make news in Indiana will be the redesigned Indianapolis Motor Speedway course, which Dye just completed. Golfers who have seen the course under construction are eager to play. The bulk of the construction work is finished and it's in the final tweaking, just like the engine of an Indy car.

"It is going to be one of the great, if not the greatest, public daily-fee golf courses in the world," says Anton "Tony" Hulman George, president of the Speedway. "From '64 to '91 it was nine holes inside the track and 18 holes outside. The fairways were very close together. The corridors were very narrow. We are doing away with the inside nine and it is going to be 14 holes outside and four holes inside. That allows us to spread the course out and create some spectator mounding."

"I really enjoyed building for Mr. George," Dye says. "He is one of the greatest guys to work with. I think what he has done for Indianapolis at the Speedway is great. The world is going to be surprised when that course opens. I know Tony is like I am. He is anxious for something big to happen yesterday like a PGA or TABULAR DATA OMITTED USGA tournament. He'll have the top golfers there someday."

Pete Dye Courses in Indiana COURSE CITY DATE El Dorado (now Royal Oak) Greenwood 1960 Heather Hills (now Maple Creek) Indianapolis 1961 Elks Plainfield 1962 Monticello Country Club Monticello 1963 Northeastway Municipal (now Sahm) Castleton 1963 Crooked Stick Carmel 1964 Harbor Trees Noblesville 1970 Eagle Creek Indianapolis 1974 Speedway (redesign) Speedway 1993 In 1988, the Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma was picked for the PGA Championship, the first major tournament played at a Dye-designed course. But 1991 was the greatest year for Dye's courses. Four of his courses were selected for championship events. The PGA teed up at Crooked Stick in Carmel, and The Ryder Cup tournament was played at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Two major amateur championships of the United States Golf Association were held at his courses. The U.S. Amateur, was played at...