PETE DYE GOLF CLUB- FRONT NINE

LOOKING BACK DOWN THE SHORT SIXTH AT PDGC

I traveled up to Pete Dye Golf Club deeply skeptical about its lofty perch near the top of Golf Week’s modern rankings (#4). I have long admired Pete’s work, but a could a course in the mountains of West Virginia that took sixteen years to build really be better than Friars Head, Ballyneal and Chambers Bay? (Video and review after the jump)

After playing the course on a beautiful spring morning, I can tell you that the Pete Dye Golf Club belongs in the upper echelon of courses built since 1960. At that rarefied air, it is tough to differentuate which course is better than the other, but PDGC is a spectacular course, beautiful, challenging, and strategically interesting. The front nine has to be mentioned in any discussion on the best nine holes in golf. Its that good.

It reminds me of Yale, a course that I am obviously fond of. It is big and bold, but not in a contrived way. It has a defenite sense of place that other architects have achieved by using native vegetation. Pete instead uses the streams, rocks, exposed mining areas, a mine shaft, and the nuclear/coal plant that poke above the horizon on number five. All of this combined with well thought out holes full of strategy, interesting greens, and the ability to walk the course, make the front nine a unique and compelling golfing experience.

Standout Holes:

No. 2

No. 2- A great cape hole playing over a natural creek. Two bunkers sit on the far side of fairway right where the natural spot to bail out would be. A good drive is a must on this hole. The long green is perched above two deep bunkers and the creek. This is a solid golf hole. It sets the tone for the rest of the golf course in its bold use of the terrain and massive features.

No. 5

N0 5- The fifth is a great par five with a stream that runs along the entire right side of the hole. A good tee shot forces the player to make a decision between attacking the green that is set hard above the stream or laying up over a set of bunkers to a blind landing area. The line for this lay-up is often one of the towers from the coal plant in the distance.

No. 8

N0. 8- This is another great par five. Mr. Dye does a great job throughout the course of giving the player a defined landing area but hiding the area that may be the ideal spot from which to attack the hole. here he shows the plyer the right side of the fairway, but the ideal line which can’t be seen, is down the left along a line of bunkers. From this angle the player can run the ball up to the green which sits below them guarded by a massive bunker to the right that sits next to exposed rock that has been mined. The setting is quite beautiful and unique.

THE GREEN ON THE EIGHTH