The Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, WV is one of Pete’s most memorable golf course construction projects he had undertaken—constructed on rolling West Virginia hills in coal country.  He was asked by local coal company executive and entrepreneur, James D. La Rosa, to construct a championship golf course in West Virginia.  La Rosa was “the toughest, most tenacious, never give up son of a gun I have ever worked for…”, and had a saying that there are “three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way, and the ‘Italian Way’!”[1]

^{(L-R): 1-Welcome to Pete Dye Golf Club; 2-Mine shaft between #6 and #7; 3-James LaRosa; 4-Mining cart on #10}

It took Dye sixteen years to build the golf course ‘the Italian way’, and at the end of it all Pete was ultimately thankful to the La Rosas, stating that

“Without Jim La Rosa’s unflinching perseverance, and that of his son Jimmy Joe, West Virginia would not have a very special golf course dedicated to the millions of coal miners who have given their lives to that time-honored industry.” – Pete Dye

The story of Pete and Jim’s interactions during construction of the course are legendary, with Jim using his strip mining equipment to make changes to the design while Pete was away, only to have Pete return and threaten to walk out on the project if Jim didn’t rework them back (the lake on the 18th hole being one of them, where Jim had it filled to accommodate additional parking overflow in case the course hosted a US Open;  another was the railroad tipple on #10 that Jim had removed, only to have Pete have it restored since it gave homage to the coal industry).  Apparently Jim didn’t play golf himself (but his son, Jimmy Joe was a very good golfer and Jim was creating the course for his son), but loved how his strip mining construction equipment—long seen as machinery that defaced the earth—could be used to create something beautiful in a golf course!

Pete’s design at the Pete Dye Golf Club incorporates many nods to the coal mining industry, including having golfers travel through an authentic mine shaft between the 6th and 7th holes.  He paid close attention to the positioning of his Par 3’s, ensuring the alignment direction for each would be different so that golfers had to deal with various wind directions for each tee shot.

One last anecdote was that Jim La Rosa requested that Pete Dye create the ‘smallest green in the world’ on #17.  What resulted is Pete creating a 17,000 sq ft green there (one of the largest in the world)—to which Jim often bragged to friends that he inspired Pete Dye to build this green after the course opened in 1994.

At 7,353 yards, the par-72 course is ranked within the Top 100 in the United States, the #1 golf course in West Virginia, and is a must play for the avid golfer.

References

[1]-“Bury Me in a Pot Bunker”, by Pete Dye with Mark Shaw, Chapter 16.

[2]-All images from https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/news/pete-dye-golf-club-bridgeport-west-virginia-kowalski/