By Design - Spring 2020

15 “Detailed plans were minimal, often they were drawn on napkins from dinner the night before or on the back of a paper placemat from breakfast. He truly loved getting a feel of the land and adapting his design to it. The more he walked the site, yes, he loved to walk, the more his imagination worked to come up with a unique golf hole. Many golf architects drew plans and expected the construction crews to follow the plans exactly, not Pete. Routings were done, but that was just the beginning of a blank canvas to create something special. He pushed the envelope, always trying different things to bring a uniqueness to his designs.” “He’s a little bit of Monet, a little bit of Picasso,” says P.B. Dye. “Dad, like a lot of the great designers, did what he needed to do to challenge the golfer. The most important factor that he always followed was that a golf course does not need to be fair, but it needs to be fun, and it needs to be playable. And even though he built the hardest golf courses in the world, they are still fun and playable for the higher handicap players.” Memorable projects “I think TPC Sawgrass is his most creative project,” says Liddy. “He had a very flat piece of ground. Pete established four layers of horizontal planes almost like a birthday cake using: water, waste bunker, fairway, and a green set off by vertical edges or railway ties or steep grass slopes. A golfer is constantly looking over, down or around these planes as he plays. He took a flat boring site and gave it spatial definition. It is pure genius. “He was one of the first to use classical elements of Raynor, Ross and Langford in modern compositions, for it is not about style or decoration but about articulation of space. The strong geometry created the feeling of space—to look over and play around.” “One of my best memories of Pete was in 1974 while I was working in the Dominican Republic on the Links course at Casa de Campo,” says Schmidt. “We were about two months into the start of construction with several holes roughed shaped on the front nine. I was traveling home for a 10-day trip to get married, so Pete volunteered to run the crews during my absence. Knowing Pete is not the most organized person, I made a list on top of list for what I wanted done and in what sequence. As always and in Pete’s words, he said. ‘No problem, I got it.’ “When I returned with my new bride, I was anxious to see the progress made during my absence. Pete met me on arrival and said, ‘everything went great, I only changed one thing.’ I was astounded, ‘Only one thing?’ ‘Yes, the more I walked the site, the more I felt the course was better if we reversed the routing. Where we previously had “I think TPC Sawgrass is his most creative project,” says Tim Liddy, ASGCA, pictured above on site with Pete. Left, the fourth hole at the world-renowned Florida course Photo: Chip Henderson Photo: Tim Liddy, ASGCA