Pete Dye – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Lynch: Three years after his death, Pete Dye is still twisting the thumbscrews at TPC Sawgrass

The first Players held here was in 1982 when J.C. Snead famously sniped that Dye had ruined a perfectly good swamp.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The aphorism about not speaking ill of the dead is believed to have originated with Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. It’s a noble sentiment, admittedly, but then Chilon never had to play a Pete Dye golf course. It’s been three years since the celebrated architect died at age 94, but his name has surely been muttered in vain by quite a few competitors this week at TPC Sawgrass, where the Stadium Course ranks among the most taxing of his designs in a career that spanned half a century.

As many a USGA official can testify, elite professional golfers are often unable to distinguish between being tested and being humiliated. The higher the number on the scorecard, the greater the odds a player will hold a dim view of both golf course and architect. T’was always thus with the Stadium Course. The first Players Championship held here was in 1982 when J.C. Snead famously sniped that Dye had ruined a perfectly good swamp. (His verdict probably didn’t soften in eight subsequent appearances, during which he broke 70 only once and even carded an 85).

Dye earned the moniker of the ‘Marquis De Sod’ for what Tour players saw as his gleeful embrace of sadism.

Four decades after it opened, the Stadium Course is golf’s equivalent of a medieval rack, across which the world’s best players are stretched until their breaking point is identified. By Sunday evening, 143 competitors will have snapped as cleanly as the club Shane Lowry angrily pulverized in Thursday’s first round. Perhaps even all 144, since some years not even the winner emerges unscathed. Aaron Wise must have wanted to snap all 14 of his after rinsing three balls at the 18th hole on his way to a 10.

Friday brought more misery. Lucas Herbert followed his opening 82 with 85. Through 36 holes, his scorecard showed 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, leaving the Australian only an ace and a Wise shy of batting for the most improbable cycle in elite golf. And Herbert didn’t even have the worst day.

More: Pete Dye’s top 10 courses according to Golfweek’s Best rankings

Justin Lower eyes his shot from the rough on hole 5 during the first round of The Players golf tournament on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union)

Max McGreevy signed for 89 after a day in which he had more 7s than 3s. To borrow a quip from the late Peter Alliss, his card resembled the dialing code for Tierra del Fuego. It will be cold comfort to McGreevy that Herbert still clipped him by nine strokes for high finisher.

A course that shows no mercy also showed no favoritism, as players who arrived in form were sent packing early. While world No. 1 Jon Rahm was felled by a stomach bug, others had to sign for their woes. Like Chris Kirk, fresh off victory two weeks ago at the Honda Classic. And Kurt Kitayama, winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational five days ago. He will have the weekend off to celebrate his victory. The two men who finished tied second behind Kitayama — Rory McIlroy and Harris English — were also rendered roadkill.

The Stadium Course is one of only two PGA Tour venues (Pebble Beach being the other) where the course is not merely the stage upon which great actors work, but itself a character in the drama. Fans remember the triumphs and disasters, particularly on the closing holes, a challenge more terrifying than being caught short in a long line for the portalet on Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open. Like Hal Sutton’s right club on that day in 2000, or Tiger’s better than most putt. Looming as large are the misfortunes. Len Mattiace was one shot off the lead when he got to the 17th hole 25 years ago and made 8, a painful moment for a popular figure in the locker room. Ten years ago, Sergio Garcia came to the 17th tee tied for the lead with Woods and made a quadruple bogey, prompting peers in the locker room to wonder if Schadenfreude is capitalized.

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The Stadium Course at Sawgrass provides something seldom seen now in elite golf, at least outside of a U.S. Open: the turning of the thumbscrews. Most weeks on the PGA Tour we see a battery of birdies propel someone to victory. We likely will this week too — it’s inevitable in a stacked field that at least one guy will get hot. But for those of us who enjoy seeing the world’s top golfers get mugged — to experience the kind of frustration the rest of us endure with every outing — this is as good as it gets.

The greatest day in golf during 2022 was Saturday at Sawgrass, when high winds battered the course and the psyches of the best. The flip side is that brutality can be a buzz kill, claiming the very stars upon whom an event relies for eyeballs. That’s not ideal for a Tour touting its designated events, which to be fair have produced stellar leaderboards in recent weeks. Just not this week.

Through two rounds, TPC Sawgrass remains the most entertaining venue on Tour — fair enough to generously reward those in full flight, capricious enough to harshly punish those who aren’t. So while some of those slamming trunks in the Sawgrass parking lot might be taking Pete Dye’s name in vain, the rest of us have reason enough to whisper it as a blessing.

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Why Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and other big names hate being reminded of their records at TPC Sawgrass

Pete Dye’s house of horrors can expose any weakness in a player’s game; it doesn’t discriminate.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Xander Schauffele finished tied for second in his debut at the Players Championship in 2018, but since that sterling performance he’s missed the cut three straight times. Just don’t remind him of this pesky little fact.

“You’re actually the second guy, someone outside reminded me how terrible my record is now since my tied second finish,” Schauffele said ahead of the Players Championship. “So I wasn’t aware that I was so bad here. You guys are crushing it. Reality check’s always nice. Usually, my wife gives me one. So we’ll just let it be in the media room today.”

Jokes aside, Schauffele has tried his hardest to bury the memory of last year’s Players Championship in the back recesses of his mind.

“Last year I would wash up as an X. Felt like we were at an Open Championship and I got the bad side of the wave,” he said.

When the wind blew its hardest from left to right at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele dunked his tee shot short of the island green and his round spiraled out of control. Later, his caddie, Austin Kaiser, showed him a stat posted on social media that encapsulated how quickly everything had gone wrong.

“He showed me like I was the first ever to go from like the top 10 to outside the top 100 or something like that in like one hole,” said Schauffele, who shot 73-78 and had the weekend off. “Like I said, my team’s all about giving me reality checks and I got one.”

Schauffele, ranked No. 6 in the world, isn’t the only big-name player who has been sent home packing in recent years. Pete Dye’s house of horrors can expose any weakness in a player’s game; it doesn’t discriminate, even from the likes of major winners Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.

Collin Morikawa hits his tee shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the 2021 Players Championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course. Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

“To be honest, my game has only felt good coming into this tournament in 2020,” said Morikawa, citing the year the tournament was canceled after one round due to COVID-19. “Sometimes you come to events and you feel really comfortable; you’re comfortable with the setting or you’re comfortable with the golf course. I feel comfortable here, and what’s great about this golf course is that it does fit (my game). I hit a lot of mid-irons to short irons into greens and you have to drive it well, but it is what it is. So I’m not too worried about my previous history here.”

Spieth nearly won the Players as a rookie in 2014 playing in the final pairing and going his first 58 holes without a bogey before finishing in a tie for fourth after a final-round 74. But since then he’s been stuck on the struggle bus.

“I don’t have a great track record here at this event. It doesn’t take much research to figure that out. But I feel like when striking it well, having some momentum and feeling like a little bit of freedom as far as being able to play aggressively here, that’s going to kind of be my strategy this week to try and take advantage. I mean, be patient, but when you get a couple opportunities, make sure you go ahead and fire away,” Spieth said.

When a reporter began a question by reminding Spieth that he’s missed five cuts in his last seven appearances, he cut him off and said, “I said it didn’t take much research. I didn’t need you to actually research it.”

Then Spieth tried to explain why TPC Sawgrass has been a Rubik’s Cube he cannot solve. “I don’t play it with enough patience, and that kind of goes against what I just talked about being aggressive,” he said. “But there’s such a balance there to being confident and swinging aggressively to the right targets versus visually I’ve had a hard time on this golf course because I like to see a lot of feel shots, and out here there’s not a lot of stuff to work it off of. It seems like if a ball is moving away from a hole, it’s just going to move further away from a hole … that’s the only thing I can think of right now.”

Scheffler was another victim of the bad side of the draw last year and barely survived the cut, finishing T-55 after missing the cut in his debut in 2021.

“There’s not one guy that has an advantage around this place,” said Scheffler. “I was talking to a few guys earlier, and somebody said it was a thinking man’s golf course, and I said it’s actually kind of the opposite because you just have to hit really good shots if you want to play well. You can’t scrape it around this place. You just have to hit fairways and hit greens and go from there.

“If you’re not playing really good golf, you’re not going to score, and if you are playing well, you’re going to shoot low scores, and so as a player I think we really appreciate that … you see whatever guy is playing the best that week.”

And that’s why it is one of the most coveted titles in men’s professional golf. Should he win this week, Morikawa was asked which he would consider more of a badge of honor – the course that he had the best score on or the players he beat?

“The title, that’s all that matters to me,” Morikawa said. “Just knowing you won the Players Championship. I think that you never lose that spot in history, right? Whether you beat 20 guys or whether you beat 144, I think you still have and own that title for that year. There’s no excuses after the fact. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. It’s you got it done in whatever year and that’s yours.”

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Check the yardage book: TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course for the 2023 Players Championship on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for the 2023 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, including the island-green 17th.

The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, the site of the 2023 Players Championship on the PGA Tour, was designed by legendary architect Pete Dye with plenty of input from his wife, Alice. The layout in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, opened in 1980 and has been home to the tournament since 1982.

The Players Stadium Course ranks No. 1 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in each state. It also ties for No. 15 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the U.S., and it ranks No. 11 among all resort courses in the U.S.

The course will play to 7,275 yards and a par of 72 for the Players Championship. The layout this year includes a new back tee on the par-5 ninth that could stretch the hole past 600 yards.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.

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Check the yardage book: PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course for the PGA Tour’s 2023 The American Express

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for the PGA Tour’s 2023 The American Express in California.

PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course in La Quinta, California – one of three courses used for the PGA Tour’s 2023 The American Express – opened in 1986 with a design by the legendary architect whose name appears in the layout’s title.

The 7,187-yard, par-72 Stadium Course is the main track for this week’s event, hosting each player for one of the first three rounds as well as Sunday’s final round. The other two courses used in the first three rounds are La Quinta Country Club (7,060 yards, par 72) and PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course (7,147 yards, par 72). All the players have one round on each course before the cut is made for Sunday’s final round.

The Stadium Course ranks No. 11 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of top public-access courses, and the Nicklaus Tournament Course is No. 23 in the state on that list.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week on the Stadium Course. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Wisconsin

Whistling Straits and Sand Valley top the list for courses in Wisconsin, which ranks among the best states in the country for public golf.

Despite a short golf season amid its northern climate, Wisconsin offers one of the best lineups of golf courses in the U.S. Players who haven’t sampled the game in Wisconsin might be surprised to learn the state ranks amid the top five of all states for its elite public-access courses.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Wisconsin’s private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.

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Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is full of highly ranked private clubs, while Pete Dye left his imprint at the top of the state’s public-access golf scene.

Want to play the best public-access golf courses in Pennsylvania? The legacy of legendary architect Pete Dye has you covered. Want to play the best private courses in the Keystone State? You have some of the top classic layouts in the country from which to choose, but for most of us, good luck getting a tee time at those ageless beauties.

Dye designed Mystic Rock at Nemacolin, a sprawling resort 90 minutes southeast of the Pittsburgh airport. Mystic Rock opened in 1995 and underwent an expansive renovation in 2021 by longtime Dye associate Tim Liddy. Built on beautifully rolling terrain, Mystic Rock is No. 1 in the state on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It also ties for No. 10 among all courses owned or operated in conjunction with casinos in the U.S.

Nemacolin is also home to Shepherd’s Rock designed by Dye and the No. 5 public-access course in the state.

On the private side, Oakmont Country Club and Merion Golf Club steal much of the limelight, each having hosted multiple national championships. But they are hardly alone as outstanding private clubs in Pennsylvania. Each of the top 20 private courses in the state ranks among the top 150 on either Golfweek’s Best Modern or Classic course lists, with 1960 being the year that splits those two prestigious lists.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Pennsylvania’s prestigious private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.

* New to or returning to list

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Florida

Where to play golf of any kind in Florida? Check out these Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The No. 1 public-access course in Florida isn’t really a surprise, seeing how it has been broadcast worldwide into living rooms during each year’s Players Championship for decades. The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass ranks as one of legendary designer Pete Dye’s top five masterpieces, perplexing PGA Tour pros since it opened in 1980, and it ties for No. 15 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses in the U.S.

And it isn’t the only course on the Ponte Vedra property to rank among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Florida. Next door to the Players Stadium Course is Dye’s Valley, which clocks in at No. 18 among the Sunshine State’s best public layouts. Dye’s Valley doesn’t have the scale or fame of its neighbor, but it does have plenty of the features, challenges and visual tricks that made its designer and namesake famous.

Dye’s Valley at TPC Sawgrass in Florida (Courtesy of TPC Sawgrass)

Looking for even more highly ranked public-access courses all at one property? In Florida, that would be Streamsong, home to Nos. 2, 3 and 4 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts. The popular resort in Bowling Green, about an hour’s drive east of Tampa or 90 minutes southwest of Orlando, features courses by Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

Coore and Crenshaw’s Red Course tops the rankings for Streamsong’s courses, coming in at No. 2 among the state’s public-access layouts and tying for No. 37 among all modern courses in the U.S. Hanse’s Black Courses isn’t far behind, ranking No. 3 in the state and tying for 50^th among modern courses. Doak’s Blue Course is right there, too, ranking No. 4 in the state and No. 53 among modern courses.

Streamsong Resort — Streamsong’s Red Course (Courtesy of Streamsong/Laurence Lambrecht)

How do you choose which layout at Streamsong to play? Take our advice: Play all three, then get back to us on your favorite. Every player to visit has plenty of opinions on which course they prefer and why, and none of them are really wrong. Combined, the three layouts make Streamsong one of only a handful of resorts in the U.S. to offer so many highly ranked courses, and the resort also has started construction of a new short course, the Chain, by Coore and Crenshaw that promises even more golf.

No. 5 in the state is no stranger to PGA Tour fans either, as Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando is home each year to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. A statue of Palmer still stands guard near the first and 10th tees, reminding players of the decades in which the King lived at the resort while leaving his fingerprints on every aspect of the operation.

Florida is also home to a staggering array of private courses, many of which serve as winter retreats for well-heeled clientele and residents who chase the warmth south each year. Topping the list of private courses in the state is Seminole, a Donald Ross design in Juno Beach that is No. 12 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S. and one of the most exclusive clubs in the U.S.

Can’t get a tee time at Seminole? Get in line – almost all of us are waiting on that call. In the meantime, check out the rest of the best public-access and private clubs in Florida below.

Check the yardage book: Austin Country Club for the PGA Tour’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

See StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps of the layout designed by Pete Dye alongside the Colorado River in Texas.

Austin Country Club’s current course in Texas, host site of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1984.

Built on the shores of the Colorado River, it has been the host site of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play since 2016. Austin Country Club was founded in 1899, but the club moved from one course to another before Dye built the club its third course.

The current course ties for No. 5 in Texas on Golfweek’s Best list of private clubs. It also ties for No. 88 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses built in or after 1960 in the U.S.

Austin Country Club will play to 7,108 yards with a par of 71 on the scorecard for the Match Play.

One of the most interesting holes on the course each year is the short, drivable par-4 13th. Listed at 317 yards from the back tees but playing shorter for players who take on the challenge, the hole gives Tour pros the chance to drive the green, which is all carry over water. Or players can lay up with a mid-iron to the fairway, leaving a wedge into the green. The risky option can be incredibly tempting to these players who have plenty of length to aim at the tiny target from the tee.

Five things to know: No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass for the Players Championship

Did Pete Dye dream up this hole? How many players hit the water? Who made the last ace on No. 17?

How hard can it be? It’s just a wedge, maybe a 9-iron, for the best players in the world, right?

Factor in wind, water, nerves and a giant gallery, and No. 17 at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is so much more than the yardage on the scorecard might indicate. With its green perched atop wooden bulkheads above a lake, No. 17 is one of – if not the – most famous holes in golf.

While PGA Tour pros normally would tear apart such a short hole, the scoring average on No. 17 during the 2021 Players Championship was 3.23, almost a quarter shot over par, to make it the third-toughest hole versus par on the course that year.

See the full StrackaLine yardage book for TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course here.

So what gives? If you’ve been fortunate enough to play the course – ranked No. 1 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses – then you already know. If you haven’t played it, you owe it to yourself.

Here are five things to know about course architect Pete Dye’s most iconic hole – if you can give credit to that famous designer after all.

The Players: Tee times | Odds | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+

Check the yardage book: TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course for the 2022 Players Championship

How long is the famed No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass? See that and all the rest of the holes for the Players Championship.

The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, site of this week’s Players Championship on the PGA Tour, was designed by Pete Dye – with help from his wife, Alice, most noticeably on the famed island-green, par-3 17^th. It opened in 1980 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and has been home to the Tour’s flagship tournament since 1982.

The Players Stadium Course ranks No. 1 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It also ties for No. 12 on Golfweek’s Best list for all public-access courses in the U.S., and it ties for No. 21 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses opened in or after 1960 in the U.S.

The course will play to 7,256 yards with a par of 72 for the Players Championship.