I soon learned that Alice Dye well deserved the First Lady of Golf recognition. From the first moment she picked up a club at age 11, hitting that first ball in a swing class she "just loved it."

"It was the satisfaction of hitting the ball and seeing how far it went and how few strokes I could take on a hole, and how well I could hit it. I just liked the whole thing. It was an individual sport, and I had played mostly team sports previous to that in school. I went to school where everybody played everything. We played football, baseball, hockey, everything, you know," Alice Dye said.

That love of golf lead to her winning 50 amateur titles, including two USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, two Canadian Senior Women’s Championships, nine Indiana Women’s Amateur and three Florida Women’s Amateur titles, competing on the 1970 Curtis Cup Team and serving as captain of the 1992 Women’s World Cup. From the age of 14 until now, she has been winning championships. At 74, she won the club championship at Crooked Creek Golf Club in 100º heat, and last year she won at Gulfstream.

When asked about her favorite tournament, the competitive Alice Dye said, "The ones that I won."

For 60 years she has played with well-known players like Patty Berg, the Babe, Mickey Wright, and Nancy Lopez. "I’ve played with everybody," Alice Dye said. "My wishes in that department [who she would like to play with], have been fulfilled."

"She also played a lot of golf on Tuesdays with the ladies at Crooked Stick (Carmel, Inc.) or Gulfstream (Fla.) that shoot 130," said Pete Dye. "Understanding the game and her patience – they are what makes her unique."

"Alice Dye’s passion for the game of golf is infectious and serves as an example for all who cherish the game and its future," said PGA of America President M.G. Orender. "Alice has achieved success both on and off the golf course, and has extended her career of service through tireless efforts in both architecture and serving with industry leaders to expand the accessibility to the game for women golfers."

When Pete came home one day and said he wanted to "design and build golf courses," Alice, was ready to roll up her sleeves. For the first course, they raised bent grass in their front yard. "When…the stolons [were] loaded into large burlap bags and crammed into the truck of my black Oldsmobile. The weight made the car so rear heavy, the front wheels barely touched the pavement. I felt like I was driving a motorboat as I transported the bags from our house twenty miles….," she said in "From Birdies to Bunkers." These bent grass stolons still thrive today at El Dorado, now known as Royal Oak.

Alice’s collaboration with her husband, Pete, has made courses more manageable for women. Hal Phillips, a journalist, named Alice, "The patron saint of forward tees." Her tenacity has led to "forward tees" rather than "ladies tees" in golf course architecture and in the industry vocabulary.

"I feel most all of our golf courses that we do now, we eliminate forced carries from the forward tees unless we know where you’re starting from. For instance, we don’t know where your second shot’s going to be on a par 4, but we know where your first shot is going to be on a par 3 because you’re on the tee. So we do have a forced carry on some of our par 3s. Short enough so that a woman’s capable of making the carry. But, we don’t have forced carries on the par 4s and par 5s. I’ve tried to eliminate that."

The Dyes funded a pilot program, Golf: For Business & Life, at Purdue University. "That’s been very, very successful and the people that are taking it in college really love it. It’s always being over subscribed at every school where we have it. I think we have almost 40 schools now where they teach golf to people who are going into business careers," she said.

"I’m seeing other schools adopting it other than those supported by the PGA. I’m seeing a growth in that [colleges providing programs]. Those people will graduate and go into the working world sooner than a junior player. Junior players are about 10 years away from being an active golfer where these students are two or three years away and they will continue with their golf in some way whether it’s watching it on TV or going to a tournament or buying a stack of tees or going to the driving range, they will be a part of golf."

Since Alice’s love of golf began as a youngster she keeps attuned to what’s happening for juniors to get and keep them in the game. "One professional told me, they had little kids fill water balloons full of water, and they had kids hit those and splatter everything. It’s the whole idea of swinging and hitting something you know." "The young people 5, 6, 7, should start from the 150 yard marker, because if they start at the 150 yard marker, they can see the green and know where they’re going. We try to make our forward tees unisex and have those so they’ll be playable for younger kids when they get in the teens."

Alice Dye is a woman of "firsts." She was the first woman to serve as an independent director of The PGA of America and the first woman president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. She is a past member of the USGA Women’s Committee, LPGA Advisory Counsel, and currently serves on the Women’s Western Amateur Board of Directors. She’s also a member of the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame, an honorary member of the Indiana PGA Section, and a recipient of the Women’s Western Golf Association Woman of Distinction Award.

She is known for her vision and great understanding of the game of golf. "I think the golf ball has to come under control. The golf ball is going too far. It’s making a mockery out of the game. I mean driving it over 350 yards, and it’s dangerous. The ball goes too far in too many directions. I just think we have to get control of the ball. I don’t feel it’s the club that’s the villain because the greatest club in the world can’t hit a marshmallow very far so it’s the ball. If we get control of the ball we can bring it back down where it doesn’t go so far."

Dye also sees more 9-hole events taking place, especially for women. "There are going to be a lot more 9-hole playing by women because you can get to the course, hit a couple of balls, play 9-holes and know it takes a two-hour time frame. It’s not a question of their skill level. It’s a question of time."

You will want to read "From Birdies to Bunkers, Discover How Golf Can Bring Love, Humor, and Success into Your Life" to learn more about Alice Dye.

Alice Dye received the 2004 PGA First Lady of Golf Award in connection with the 65th Senior PGA Championship at Louisville, Kentucky. Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, a busload of friends from Crooked Stick Golf Club, and other dignitaries, gathered to pay tribute to Dye.

The PGA First Lady of Golf Award, inaugurated in 1998, is presented to a woman who has made significant contributions to the promotion of the game of golf. PGA First Lady of Golf recipients: 1998: Barbara Nicklaus 1999: Judy Rankin 2000: No recipient 2001: Judy Bell 2002: Nancy Lopez 2003: Renee Powell 2004: Alice Dye

Alice's book can be found at Amazon.com

from Ladies Golf Journey - Aug/Sep 2004