World-famous golf course designer Dye grew up Urbana

The Lima News, OhioTue, Jun 30, 2026·4 min read

By Steve Stout • UDCeditor@aimmediamidwest.com

URBANA — The late Paul (Pete) Dye Jr. is known to many as the father of modern golf course design.

He was born in Urbana on Dec. 29, 1925, to Paul Frances “Pink” Dye and Elizabeth Johnson Dye.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Pete Dye’s lifelong career in golf began as a youngster, pulling weeds and caddying at Urbana Country Club, which was then a nine-hole course his father built in 1923 on the Johnson family farm.

Dye won a state golf championship while he was a student at Urbana High School. Upon graduating high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, serving in the 82nd Airborne Parachute Infantry. After his honorable discharge from the Army, he continued his education at Rollins College and Stetson University in Florida.

Dye met Alice Holliday O’Neal, the love of his life, at Rollins College, where they were both golf team captains. He and Alice married on Feb. 2, 1950.

Settling with Alice in Indianapolis, Pete Dye became one of the youngest members of the insurance industry’s prestigious Million Dollar Round Table. In 1959, he left insurance and, with Alice, embarked on a career in golf course architecture.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Although told at the time that the economic rewards of the profession were not encouraging, he and his wife pursued their dream together, and in 1960 they began building a nine-hole course south of Indianapolis now known as Dye’s Walk, which was soon followed by their first 18-hole course, Maple Creek.

In 1963, a trip to Scotland with Aliceprofoundly influenced his subsequent designs and career. Touring the great Scottish courses, he was influenced by the features he saw — small greens, pot bunkers, undulating fairways, wooden bulkheads — and began incorporating them into his own work.

Early course designs in Dye’s new signature style included Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., The Golf Club in New Albany, Ohio, and Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina, a collaboration with Jack Nicklaus that propelled Pete’s career to the next level.

The decades that followed saw Dye build some of the greatest courses of the modern era, several of which have hosted major championships and The Ryder Cup.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Oak Tree in Edmund, Oklahoma, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, The Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, and Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, all challenged the world’s top golfers. Casa de Campo resort in the Dominican Republic, where Dye built 90 holes including the world-renowned Teeth of the Dog, was a project he was especially proud of and where he had a vacation home for decades.

Dye was a mentor to hundreds in the golf industry, and his influence continues through their work in golf architecture, building practices and course maintenance.

Dye was also an accomplished amateur golfer. He was a medalist in the Ohio Amateur, qualified for the U.S. Amateur five times, won the Indiana State Amateur, competed in a British Amateur and played in the U.S. Open at Inverness where he famously finished ahead of Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus.

Dye received dozens of honors throughout his career, including the Donald Ross Award from the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association and the Sagamore of Wabash from the State of Indiana.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

He is one of only five golf course architects in the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Rollins College and the University of South Carolina.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan called Dye “one of the most important course architects of this or any generation.”

Nicklaus first met Dye in the summer of 1957 when they both played in an exhibition golf match with Sam Snead and local standout Bob Ross at Urbana Country Club. Nicklaus was 17 at the time, and Dye was 31.

Nicklaus would go on to become arguably the greatest golfer ever, while Dye would go on to become arguably the greatest golf course designer ever.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

“We became friends; we played a lot of golf together; and we designed courses together,” Nicklaus said after Dye’s death at the age of 94 on Jan. 9, 2020. “It was Pete who inspired me to start designing courses more than 50 years ago, and so in many ways I owe my second career to him.

“I think Pete Dye was the most creative, imaginative and unconventional golf course designer I have ever been around,” Nicklaus added. “Pete would try things that nobody else would ever think of doing or certainly try to do, and he was successful at it. If there was a problem to solve, you solved it Pete’s way. In the end, Pete’s way usually turned out to be the right way.”

Dye’s son, noted golf course designer P.B. Dye, owns a home near the course at Urbana Country Club, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1992, P.B. Dye designed the second nine holes at UCC, which is today known as the Dye Original.

Read more stories from the statewide “250 Years United” project by clicking here.

Story byThe Lima News, Ohio