The U.S. Ryder Cup team hopes to deliver Samuel Ryder’s gold trophy back to America this week at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
Mike O’Connor also has a delivery this week — to Whistling Straits owner Herb Kohler.
O’Connor worked alongside architect Pete Dye for five years building Whistling Straits in the 1990s, serving as project manager. He has large handwritten drawings Dye made when creating the course and wants to hand them over to Kohler to preserve.
“When I look at those drawings, it takes me back to those days,” O’Connor said. “I’ll never forget the first time we walked on the property. It was dead flat with a landing strip.
“Just walking with Pete, seeing what he envisioned. We probably moved 2½ million cubic yards of dirt, and nothing was moved twice.”
Dye, in other words, built golf courses like Bobby Fischer played chess. Methodically, with a vision and an ability to produce a piece of land that would confound the world’s best players.
Life doesn’t always go as planned. Dye is a perfect example. The longtime Delray Beach, Florida, resident was a successful insurance salesman until in his mid-30s he decided to use a mulligan on career plans and start designing golf courses. His wife, Alice, a top amateur golfer, was happy to go along for the ride.
The Dyes may be best known for building TPC Sawgrass that includes the iconic island 17th green — Alice was the one who came up with the idea to make it an island. Here’s an amazing stat that shows the stature of his work: This week marks the first time in 30 years an architect has had his courses used in a major and a Ryder Cup the same year (the PGA was held at Dye’s Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in May).
The last designer who could make that claim? Dye, 30 years ago, when Kiawah hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup (barely won by the U.S.) and Crooked Stick hosted the PGA won by out-of-the-blue John Daly.
“I wish Pete was here. He should be here,” O’Connor said of Dye, who died early last year at 94. “But I’m sure he will be here in spirit.”
He’ll be there in 7,790 yards of a golf course hard on Lake Michigan that was built to replicate ancient seaside links courses in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Every time a golfer faces an awkward shot this week, Dye’s memory will be revived.
O’Connor, a 58-year-old Syracuse New York, native, worked for Dye for more than a quarter century, starting in 1985 when he was 23. They built courses together throughout the U.S. and in the Dominican Republic, where they relied on 300 men and 12 oxen (yes, oxen).
Dye learned to make do with what he had as he built a reputation as the mad scientist of golf architecture. Headline writers had fun with his “Dye-abolical” designs — a name he actually gave to the 18th hole at Whistling Straits, a 520-yard, par-4 brute that usually plays into the wind.
In a world where everybody now uses analytics and measurements, Dye relied on his instincts to build a masterpiece such as Whistling Straits. He was innovative in a traditional profession.
“The way Pete gets on a property and feels it is pretty impressive,” Tiger Woods told Golf Digest in 2008. “His courses built for tournaments are hard, but there’s a good reason for everything.”
O’Connor said Dye’s biggest strength was his passion for his work, often jumping on the tractor to show workers how he wanted it done. He might spend a day working on part of a green. He rarely designed more than one or two courses at a time because they were so consuming.
“Pete was always processing,” O’Connor said. “We’d work in the morning and then go have lunch at a local Subway. He would sketch maps on the back of the mats at Subway.”
It was rare for Dye to radically change his design once the project started because the plans were so well-thought-out. But just like they made the 17th at TPC Sawgrass an island green, a notable change occurred late at Whistling Straits.
“We originally were going to make the 11th and 15th a double green and tie the holes together,” said O’Connor, who is living in Hobe Sound, Florida, while he helps Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design a second golf course at McArthur Club. “Pete thought it would be better to keep them separate.”
O’Connor said the most difficult part about building Whistling Straits was installing the riveting around the tees and greens on the eight holes that hug Lake Michigan. The work had to be done during winter and roads had to be built to each hole.
O’Connor believes it wouldn’t have mattered to Dye who wins this week, the favored Americans or the underdog Europeans. He would just want to see great golf on the canvas he formed.
“I’d think he’d really like to see the wind blow,” O’Connor said. “He would want it to see it be a close match and come down to the wire.
“Just like they did at Kiawah in 1991.”
Craig Dolch is a TCPalm.com correspondent with more than 30 years of golf writing experience.