Golf course designer Pete Dye died Thursday at the age of 94. In many ways he redefined golf architecture and there will be many memorials written about him, like this one in USA Today . So I thought I'd do something different.
It's easy to call some of Dye's iconic designs like TPC Sawgrass, Whistling Straits and Harbour Town. But many human beings don't understand that he designed a number of less well-known publications.
I stay much less than a half of-hour from one of them. It's in Greensboro, owned through the equal individuals who own Sedgefield Country Club, which hosts the Wyndham every 12 months. It's only a stone's throw from the Piedmont Triad International Airport and until closing March it become a non-public direction. In March 2019 it became semi-private due to the fact the proprietors, McConnell Golf in Raleigh NC, determined greater humans should get a threat to play it. Here's an article from the Triad Golf Today site that announced the change.
The route is absolutely named The Cardinal with the aid of Pete Dye. It turned into at first constructed in 1974 as a private membership, a family united states membership with the whole lot from a swimming pool to tennis courts. It become intended to host a few novice occasions, however nothing like the huge activities we now partner with Dye layouts.
I've in no way performed the path, however lower back inside the mid-80s I had an possibility to walk it. I had simply gotten into the game of golfing and, as I keep in mind, it was getting used because the Monday qualifier course for the Greater Greensboro Open, higher known as the GGO and now -- after numerous call adjustments -- because the Wyndham Championship.
I knew who Pete Dye changed into, but it became my first revel in of a Dye route. And I became in awe of what I saw.
The Cardinal is a par-70 course measuring just over 7000 yards long. Bear in mind that equipment advances like metal woods and Spalding's revolutionary balata killer, the two-piece Tour Edition, were still very new and 7000 yards was a long course. I remember that my two biggest impressions of The Cardinal was that it looked extremely difficult... and that I had never seen so many railroad ties in my life.
I become additionally blown away by the sheer beauty of the place. The image I covered in advance in this submit most effective tips at what it is like.
Pete Dye will be remembered for many things but I think my most vivid memory will be that chilly March day at The Cardinal, when I got my first real glimpse of how stunning a golf course could be -- not just courses where the PGA Tour, huge sponsors and TV networks were involved, but smaller venues that would likely never see a multimillion-dollar event. That's how I'll remember Pete Dye.
And I think it really is an excellent manner to be remembered, don't you?
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