{"id":2466,"date":"2020-03-12T11:19:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T18:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2020-03-27T11:50:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T18:50:47","slug":"late-golf-course-architect-pete-dye-left-lansing-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/personalities\/2466\/late-golf-course-architect-pete-dye-left-lansing-connections","title":{"rendered":"Late golf course architect Pete Dye left Lansing connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

French Canadian Gilles Gagnon, who played hockey at Michigan State University from 1969-73, is mourning the recent loss of his mentor and dear friend Pete Dye, the golf course architect from Ohio who designed his way into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/a>

Merrilee Gagnon, Pete Dye, Alice Dye and Gilles Gagnon at Casa de Campo in 2016. (Photo by Gilles Gagnon)<\/p><\/div>\n

Dye, who was 94, passed away in January at Casa de Campo, the golf resort in the Dominican Republic where Gagnon has been golf professional since 1980. Dye created the world famous \u201cTeeth of the Dog\u201d golf course there and had a home on its oceanfront par-3, seventh hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was here for the last six weeks of his life dealing with dementia but a smile always came over his face when we took him on a golf cart and drove him around his beautiful \u2018Teeth of the Dog\u2019 golf course. He passed away peacefully,\u201d Gagnon told me.<\/p>\n

Gagnon said Dye was like a father to him, and though Pete had children, P.B. and Perry, who also became architects, Teeth of the Dog was also his baby.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIn 1971 there was not much equipment in the Dominican Republic so he and the local laborers used machetes, picks, shovels and oxen. The course was built on coral along the ocean so it was an amazing feat. There wasn\u2019t a single tree then, so every palm tree and mango tree you see there now were planted by Pete Dye,\u201d said Gagnon. He said Dye named Teeth of the Dog after the sharp, perilous rocks along the ocean\u2019s edge the locals warned him about by calling them dientes del perro. \u201cPete always has had funny names for things. He went into town and paid $60 for a dog so he named it \u2018Sixty.\u2019\u201d<\/div>\n
\u00a0Dye went on to design big-name professional tournament courses such as Harbour Town; the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island; PGA West; and a number of tracks at Whistling Straits on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, there is another Lansing connection. Eagle Eye Golf Club\u2019s island green 17th hole was built, in homage and with Dye\u2019s blessing, as an exact replica of the infamous 17th hole he and his late wife, Alice, designed at TPC Sawgrass \u2013 seen by millions each year during the PGA Tour\u2019s Players Championship. Eagle Eye GC is home to the Michigan PGA headquarters.<\/div>\n

\u201cKevin Helm, the Michigan PGA executive director, held a tournament here on the number of Pete Dye courses we have here at Casa de Campo. I love Michigan people and hope we are together again soon,\u201d said Gagnon.<\/p>\n

Arthur Hills re-designed the Forest Akers West Golf Course at Michigan State, and although he was an Ohio-born competitor of Dye\u2019s, he was also an admirer of Dye\u2019s sometimes outrageous layout features. \u201cPete was a \u2018Picasso\u2019 of golf course architecture. Someone who created a non-traditional design, whether it\u2019s a painting, a sculpture or a golf course,\u201d Hills told ESPN.<\/p>\n

I encountered Dye outside his house walking his dog one evening along the closing holes of his Crooked Stick GC near Indianapolis. He and wife Alice both provided me with compelling stories for my book \u201cSecrets of the Great Golf Course Architects.\u201d In their chapter the Dye\u2019s self-deprecating one about one of their first projects: \u201cA local farmer gave us a job to build nine holes. Our carefully drawn routing crossed the creek 13 times and included trees, bunkers and small, severely-contoured greens. We were not hired to build the second nine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact<\/i>\u00a0Travel Writer Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0MShiels@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0His radio program may be heard weekdays at\u00a0MiBigShow.com<\/a>\u00a0or in Lansing on WJIM am 1240 from 9-noon. His newest book \u201cI Call Him Mr. President\u201d with George HW Bush is at\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French Canadian Gilles Gagnon, who played hockey at Michigan State University from 1969-73, mourns the recent loss of his mentor and dear friend Pete Dye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[94915,439,536,504],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-personalities","tag-golf-2","tag-pete-dye","tag-casa-de-campo","tag-pga"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2020\/03\/image0-8.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2474,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions\/2474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}