As the PLAYERS Championship goes on in Ponte Vedra, scattered throughout the course you'll spot thankful reminders of the first lady of golf architecture, Alice Dye.
Last month, just weeks before her 92nd birthday, Dye passed away in her South Florida home, but her legacy lives on through her incredible career. She's credited with coming up with the vision behind the infamous Island Green at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra.
Many players fear Hole 17. It sits on a lake filled with failed balls and dashed dreams. It's one of those holes that can make or break you.
"Pete and I stayed up there in a motel while he was building the course, I would come up there every afternoon and look at things," said Dye during a 2017 interview with FCN’s Keitha Nelson at her home in South Florida. “One morning he said you gotta come out this morning. He said I'm in a mess out here. So I was standing at the edge of this huge cavern of a hole and I said you know why don't you just put the 17th green back where it was and fill this hole with water? So that's what he did."
An accomplished mother of two, Dye was involved in golf most of her life winning 50 amateur championships and a gold medal at the Senior Olympics. Alice married Pete Dye in 1950 who, looking beyond gender, quickly recognized her talent.
"When he wanted to start building golf courses he asked if I wanted to be his partner. I felt very comfortable, I felt I was qualified," said Dye.
She went on to become the first female President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
"I went into that because I feel like if you're in a position to open (doors) for other women you have a responsibility to do that," Dye said.
Dye paved the way for more women-friendly courses, helping to make them more manageable. Ironic because the Indiana native is best known for the not so manageable 17, Island Green.
During round one of play on Thursday at THE PLAYERS Championship in 2019, Ryan Moore stunned fans with an incredible hole-in-one on the 17th hole.
A hole-in-one on Island Green is considered of the most skilled shots in golf.
#ThankyouAlice.