Column: Pete Dye deserves Lowcountry Hall of Fame nod

Bob Collar wore a dress shirt and sports coat and stood in the middle of the long hallway in the office of this newspaper last week, ready to deliver his own news.

Collar wants every aspect of his Lowcountry Golf Hall of Fame to be first class. No corners cut, just like his longtime involvement as director of the Hilton Head Island Amateur Golf Association.

Everything needs to be just right.

Collar announced the inaugural class of the local hall of fame last week in a video posted to our website. He said the committee wanted to include names synonomous with golf in the area.

Well, committee members whiffed on one. If Charles Fraser, Joseph Fraser and Charley Price are inducted based on their roles in establishing previously off-the-map Hilton Head Island as a golf destination, then so should the man who built Harbour Town Golf Links.

The inaugural class should have included Pete Dye.

There are other possible arguments -- the hall needs to eventually include two women already in the S.C. Golf Hall of Fame, Beaufort's Walton Horton and Hilton Head's Karen Ferree. Many others -- professionals and amateurs -- must be on the fringe and will wait for future two-member classes.

Seven were included in the first class -- the Frasers, Price, Mike Harmon, Tim Moss, Kevin King and Jim Ferree.

They are worthy, sure, but we don't know who else was close, because Collar and the other selection committee members have opted to keep the other 15 finalists secret. Based on the criteria they set forth publicly, Dye is a head-scratcher.

"I can tell you, without Sea Pines and Harbour Town, golf really doesn't exist as we know it on Hilton Head Island or the Lowcountry," Collar said.

Harmon, the selection committee chairman and longtime director of golf at Secession Golf Club, echoed Collar.

"Without Hilton Head and without Sea Pines and without Harbour Town, this would not be the golf destination that it is," said Harmon. "I think every development, every resort, every private club in this area owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Frasers and Sea Pines for kicking this thing off."

Somewhere in the process they balked on Dye.

He was responsible for tweaking George Cobb's original Harbour Town routing and running the 17th and 18th holes back along Calibogue Sound, eventually finishing at the iconic lighthouse, rather than the clubhouse. He built tiny greens and pot bunkers and waste areas.

Cobb, who designed Sea Pines' Ocean Course and is known for his playable designs, could not have created something with such magnetism.

Collar pointed out that Dye was paid well for his work and kind of parachuted in. He said the committee wanted a more local feel, people who really made a difference in the area.

But Dye has been back again and again. He also built highly regarded courses at Colleton River and Long Cove Club and routed Secession before a falling out after he began work on Kiawah Island's Ocean Course.

Colleton River has played host to a number of USGA qualifiers and this summer will be the site of the U.S. Junior Amateur. Long Cove has earned extensive praise and recently has enjoyed a wildly successful start to its women's college golf tournament, the Darius Rucker Invitational.

Those are part of Dye's lasting contribution to the area, in addition to creating a buzzworthy golf course that helped propel Sea Pines, Hilton Head and the Heritage into the public sphere.

Cobb, a member of the S.C. Golf Hall of Fame, will earn consideration from the Lowcountry hall in future years for his work here. So will Clyde Johnston, the Hilton Head Island-based architect who has designed more than 30 courses and renovated almost as many.

But if you want those who originally drove golf and development in the area, Dye should be in now.

Follow assistant sports editor Stephen Fastenau at twitter.com/IPBG_Stephen.

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Column: Pete Dye deserves Lowcountry Hall of Fame nod."