Cybergolf has just posted my Pete Dye interview.
One week from this moment I’ll be winging west reading James Michener’s Chesapeake, (in prep for the Potomac Cup), while waiting for “wheels down” and the hour drive to the bucolic splendor of Sheboygan, Wisconsin and the PGA Championship.
Thank goodness the week won’t be as chock-a-bloc as last year – nine full articles, three videos, four rounds of golf, one sprained wrist -caused by Julie Z. of Le Center, Minnesota:):) – but I certainly hope to have as much fun and have something interesting for you to read every morning with your cappuccino, scone, bacon and egg sandwich, McCroissant, or bubble and squeak.
Big thank yous go out to Julie and the Minnesota crew, stalwart golf companions as ever there were and baker of chocolate chip cookies so tasty, they’ve become a media center tradition, and to Dick “Brother William” Daley for hosting an Italian paeson:) for the week. “We will meet again, Brother William!” said Ubertino, “God will wish it!” (That’s from Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose for those of you scoring at home.)
Thank you also to Seize Sur Vingt for the great sportswear, which I’ll showcase all week from tournament, Marty Hackel never had such sharp lines:):) (Except in those madras pants, then he’s the undefeated champ.)
Finally, a big thank you to Pete and Alice Dye, for the interview which will appear both at Cybergolf and as PGA.com‘s golf architecture preview for the tournament. I can’t think of two nicer people for the Good Lord to shine his light upon. All the golf world is richer for their contributions, and even more, we laugh long and loud with them and their down home common sense and spark.
Here’s a teaser from the interview:
Jay Flemma: What else should we be looking out for at Whistling Straits and what did you enjoy the most about the tournament last time?
Pete Dye: Well, people would sit on those mounds and just look out at the lake, check out the ambience of the golf course. There are so many knobs and crags where you can sit down and watch golf, but people like to sit out on 12 and look out onto the lake. Also, when we had the 2004 PGA, people were singing songs back and forth. They also did it at 18, I think maybe it was a football song, but they were singing and swaying back and forth. Lemme ask Allie…
(Calling into the other room…)
Allie? Remember all those people at Whistling singing and swaying? What was all that and the waving back and forth?
Alice Dye: They were doing “The Wave.”
Pete Dye: Well I’d never seen that. It looked to me like they were having some good clean Midwestern fun…there were just thousands of people all packed in there doing that, it was fantastic. You know, those Wisconsinites have the second largest golfing population per capita of any state in the nation.
Jay Flemma: Would the first one be Minnesota?
Pete Dye: You’re right. You see? I didn’t even have to tell you!
(Laughter…)
Well anyway, all those knowledgeable people come out there to watch and to celebrate, and to love golf. It’s really something. It’s different from Phoenix where every kid in town comes out to drink and yell. So it’s great to watch them and, and to meet all the ardent golfers. They were great people that came out to the Straits Course last time, and that really makes the tournament great.
Jay Flemma: How will the setup this time differ from the 2004 tourney?
Pete Dye: These days, if these guys don’t shoot under par, you did something wrong. I know there’s no way to make a real par-5 anymore, or a short par-4, but if you wanna make them shoot over par and you cut the greens down so no one can putt ’em, that’s not golf. And I don’t understand the rough being high. I wanna see guys hit shots. I wanna see a guy in the rough have a tough shot, but have a shot. Don’t get my greens there over 11, that’s fast enough. But when you talk about 14, that’s too much. Hogan won at Oakmont at stimps of 6-7. Stimps too high change the game too much. Now they cut it to1/10 of an inch when back in Hogan’s time, was just under an inch.
Jay Flemma: Do you have the ability to tell the PGA that?
Pete Dye: Kerry Haigh does a great job setting up a golf course. Sometimes they go to extremes, but the last day at Oakmont for the women, they made it easier for the girls to shoot numbers on the last day. I don’t object to that. I hate to see them gimmick it up and make it hard.
Anyway, we’ve got more interviews with players and caddies, a hole-by-hole breakdown of the Straits course, a look at some of the best courses in Wisconsin, and more. Look for wall-to-wall PGA Championship coverage here and at Cybergolf over the next two weeks, and then live coverage from the Potomac Cup matches two weeks later.
