Ten years ago today (10/10/2014), Pete Dye’s Full Cry golf course located at Keswick Hall in Charlottesville, VA opened for play, and was one of Pete’s last courses constructed with his wife, Alice.
Set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia’s Hunt Country, Full Cry has received national recognition for it’s golf course design, and is consistently ranked as one of Virginia’s top golf courses. Full Cry has hosted multiple amateur championships as well as served as a US Open qualifying course on multiple occasions, including in 2023 and 2024.
Pete Dye was commissioned in 2012 to rework the original 1949 Fred Findlay design at Keswick Hall, which had been ‘modernized’ in 1991 by Arnold Palmer Designs. Pete constructed a nearly completely different course over the existing routing, with only holes #12 – #15 keeping to Findlay’s original design. All other holes were completely changed, with nearly half of the holes having their par changed, and an additional 1,000 yards added to the scorecard! Dye also convinced ownership to make a massive investment in sand-capping the fairways at Full Cry–with nearly two thousand long-bed trucks bringing in sand from outside the region. Full Cry is the only sand-capped course in the region.
“When construction began, Dye was 87 years old and on-site like clockwork every two weeks. Dye walked everywhere; stamina as ever was his hallmark. Green Keeper Peter Mcdonough shared a story of Dye roaming around in the gathering gloam near what became today’s 17th tee. He meandered along the edge of a thirty foot ravine as well as thick brush, rocks, trees, wetland and a rail line, trying to sort out a routing issue. It became pitch dark and Dye was still at it. Mcdonough shakes his head at what might have befallen Dye that night but he came to understand that if Dye was on to something, nothing else mattered.” (golfclubatlas.com)
The articles below include the announcement of Full Cry’s opening, as well as an outstanding piece in Golf Club Atlas that goes through Full Cry’s history with Pete Dye, along with a hole-by-hole description of the course!
Happy Birthday, Full Cry!
https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/full-cry-course-to-open-at-keswick-hall-next-month-2
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