Alice Dye: Kiawah Island Golf Resort: The Ocean Course and Harbour Town Golf Links
Alex Elias
“Behind every great man is a great woman”—and in the case of the late Pete Dye, that woman was Alice, who together forged one of the most formidable partnerships in golf course architecture.
At TPC Sawgrass, its famed Par-3 17th was not the result of some divine architectural plan, but rather a creative solution by Alice to an unforeseen problem.
Unsure of what to do with the difficult section of land, Alice suggested to Pete, “Why don’t you just put the green where you want and fill the rest of this up with water?”
As “Thank you, Alice” read at the bottom of the flag on No. 17 following her passing in 2019, the world of golf has far more to thank Alice for than just the island green. In particular, two of Pete Dye’s most renowned designs—Kiawah Island Golf Resort: The Ocean Course and Harbour Town Golf Links—would not carry the same weight without her influence.
Courtesy of Christian Tassinari (@ctgolfshots)
Designed in 1991, The Ocean Course was originally planned to sit behind the dunes until Alice convinced Pete to raise the fairways and greens by six feet—particularly on the back nine—giving golfers unobstructed views of Kiawah’s stunning coastline.
“The Ocean Course owes much of its unique character to Alice’s vision and influence. Her idea to elevate the fairways, particularly on the back nine, not only created the stunning, unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean and the rolling dunes along the beach, but also exposed more of the course to the strong, shifting winds that are so prevalent on this part of Kiawah’s coast. The combination of breathtaking beauty and challenging conditions is central to the experience here, and Alice’s influence is unmistakable on every hole, and often on every shot,” said Stephen Youngner, Head Golf Professional at The Ocean Course.
Courtesy Bill Hornstein (@golfrhino)
Though often overshadowed by her vision at TPC Sawgrass and The Ocean Course, Alice’s first monumental impact came more than a decade earlier at Harbour Town Golf Links. Routing the 374-yard Par-4 13th himself, Pete couldn’t come up with a compelling concept for the hole and its strategy. Tasking Alice, she designed the heart-shaped green and its horseshoe-shaped fronting bunker, faced with old cypress planks rather than Pete’s railroad ties, best known from The Golf Club and Crooked Stick Golf Club.
“Pete and Alice did not really like to design ‘driveable’ Par-4s, but they did often design very interesting short Par-4s—Hole 5 at Long Cove Club, Hole 4 at TPC Sawgrass, Hole 8 at Crooked Stick Golf Club, etc.,” said Scot Sherman, Lead Architect of Love Golf Design. “Hole 13 at Harbour Town Golf Links is one of those interesting short holes. Needless to say, a player can hit almost any club from the tee. However, most hole locations on the green are really only accessible from very few areas of the fairway due to the trees, so accuracy is at a premium. Also, the shape of the green allows for a variety of hole locations which change the hole tremendously from day to day—and the depth of the bunker discourages trying to drive the green. Finally, the aesthetics were unique for golf in America in the 1960s, where Alice ordered up the planking (something they learned about in Scotland) to create an interesting look and carry to challenges short irons. The hole just has a little bit of everything—strategy, variety, visual interest, difficulty, and notoriety.”
Having undergone a restoration following the 2025 RBC Heritage, Love Golf Design—“committed to protecting the strategy and integrity of Pete’s design”—made only very minor changes to Hole 13.
“The lowering of the green was largely restorative in nature,” said Sherman. “As time goes on, greens rise due to topdressing of Bermudagrass greens. This was the case on 13, so we settled it back down closer to the planking. None of the planking was replaced, so we had a great baseline to work from.”
