In the 80s, national media attention returned to the Lowcountry with the
opening of several stellar private courses, most attached to upscale residential
communities. Not surprisingly Dye was once again leading the way. As a follow-up
to his stunning, controversial Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, Dye returned to
Hilton Head Island and created the antithesis
of target golf with Long Cove Club. Noted golf writer and historian Charles
Price offered the following review: “To compare Long Cove to the TPC Course is
to compare the Last Judgment to a cartoon...[this time]Pete Dye left himself out
of the design, giving the course a timeless transparency as though it had been
designed by no one in particular.”
There were actually many hands in the design of Long Cove, most sharing
the same last name as the head man himself. In addition to construction
superintendent Bobby Weed, Dye credits his son P.B. for many of Long Cove’s
strongest features, including “some of the finest mounding ever created.” And as
with Harbour
Town, Dye’s wife, Alice,
had a significant role in the creation of Long Cove. In his autobiography, Dye
recalled the meticulous work on the course’s 15th green during a long, grueling
Lowcountry summer day. Dye proudly displayed the result to Alice, who without
hesitation responded, “I think the inside shapes on that green make it look like
a toilet bowl!” Damaged ego not-withstanding, Dye knew she was right. “I went
back and fixed the damn thing,” he admitted.
Long Cove remains one of the country’s most revered courses, and it has
been joined in the ranks of golf’s elite by several neighboring clubs. As growth
spread from Hilton Head Island to the mainland, so did the proliferation of
outstanding private courses: the Dye and Jack Nicklaus courses at Colleton
River, 36-hole complexes by Tom Fazio at both Belfair and Berkeley Hall and, a
little further inland in the Okatie community, Arnold Palmer’s stunningly
beautiful course at Spring Island. 
In 2001 Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore left their mark on the Okatie area
with Chechessee Creek Club, an old-style course of infinite character and beauty
that celebrates the game and its rich traditions. Nicklaus made a triumphant
return to the Lowcountry in 2004 with the opening of the May River Golf Club,
built on the idyllic site of a former riverfront hunting preserve known as
Palmetto Bluff. And at Tradition Hilton Head, a sprawling self-contained private
community near historic Hardeeville, Tommy Fazio (Tom’s nephew) has recently
opened Tradition National, an “old-school” 18-hole design that lives up to its
name.
In a little over a half-century of existence, Hilton
Head Island continues to evolve as a destination of scope and
sophistication. Two of the island’s earliest golf clubs, Port Royal and
Shipyard, are now under the guidance of the California-based Heritage Golf
Group, and the company’s top-to-bottom enhancements include a magnificent new
clubhouse that anchors Port Royal’s 54-hole
facility. Heritage Golf also owns Oyster Reef Golf Club and the terrific 36
holes at Palmetto Hall (with 18-hole courses from Hills and Cupp), where a new
PGA TOUR Academy instructional center is
headquartered.
There has been a series of high-profile enhancements to the island’s
resort facilities, but none as dramatic as the $9 million renovation of the old
Sea Marsh golf course at The Sea Pines Resort. Not surprising, it was Dye taking center stage at the unveiling
of the new Heron Point course last September. In describing his transformation
of the Sea Marsh course into Heron Point, Dye was true to form, simple and
straightforward. “You have to stay ahead of the game,” he said.
That’s a philosophy that Hilton Head Island has embraced from day one. Fifty-odd years later, it’s
still ahead of the game.
