A few years before Dye's birth, his father became involved with golf and built a nine-hole course on family land in Champaign County called the "Urbana Country Club.
He was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina where he served the rest of his hitch as greenskeeper on the base golf course.
"[1] After Dye's discharge, he relocated to Florida and enrolled at Rollins College in Winter Park, northeast of Orlando, where he met his wife, Alice Holliday O'Neal.
[3] The first design from Dye and his wife was the nine-hole El Dorado course south of Indianapolis, which crossed a creek thirteen times.
[6][7] Their first 18-hole course was created during 1962 in Indianapolis and named Heather Hills, now known as Maple Creek Golf & Country Club.
[3] Dye's first well-known course was Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, north of Indianapolis, begun in 1964.
In 1967, he designed The Golf Club near Columbus, Ohio, where he solicited input from 27-year-old Jack Nicklaus, an area local who won his seventh major (of 18) that year.
The two worked together to design the acclaimed Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina, opened in 1969, the site of an annual PGA Tour event ever since.
His design for the Brickyard Crossing golf course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway utilized the dismantled outer retaining wall from the race track.
He is known for designing the "world's most terrifying tee shot," the par-3 17th hole of the Stadium Course at TPC at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Many of the best young golf architects have "pushed dirt" for Pete, including Bill Coore, Tom Doak, John Harbottle, Butch Laporte, Tim Liddy, Scott Poole, David Postlewaite, Lee Schmidt, Keith Sparkman, Jim Urbina, Bobby Weed, Rod Whitman, and Abe Wilson.
[1][16] Dye received the Old Tom Morris Award in 2003 from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, their highest honor.