Crooked Stick Golf Club

Pete and Alice Dye's first full statement after a 1963 trip to Scotland: pot bunkers, railroad-tie walls and small greens in Carmel, Indiana. Host of John Daly's 1991 PGA win.

Pete and Alice Dye built Crooked Stick in Carmel, north of Indianapolis, starting in 1964. That came right after Pete played the 1963 British Amateur at St Andrews and the couple photographed dozens of Scottish courses. The trip changed their work. Crooked Stick brought pot bunkers, railroad-tie and timber walls, small greens, blind shots and rolling fairways to the Midwest. Club lore says the name came from a bent stick Dye picked up while walking the unfinished back nine.

The course became a lab for ideas that showed up later at the Dyes' best-known designs. Bulkheads make abrupt edges, long sandy areas stand in for dunes, and the two nines use different green styles. Pete Dye lived beside the 18th and kept adjusting the course for decades. The 13th is a par 3 he deliberately made partly blind with a mound in the fairway, a hole he said people complained about but never forgot.

Crooked Stick's record includes John Daly's 1991 PGA Championship win as the ninth alternate, the 1993 U.S. Women's Open, the 2005 Solheim Cup and the 2009 U.S. Senior Open. It also hosted BMW Championships in 2012 and 2016. Tom Doak finished a renovation in 2024 meant to sharpen the Dyes' features rather than change them. The work kept the bulkheads, pot bunkers and small greens that made the course so influential.

Holes to know

13

Par 3

Dye left a mound in front so only part of the green is visible from the tee, a feature he admitted drew complaints.

18

Par 4

A long par-4 finish; Pete Dye lived within a wedge shot of this hole.

Championships

• U.S. Junior Amateur 1982
• U.S. Senior Amateur 1984
• PGA Championship 1991
• U.S. Women's Open 1993
• Solheim Cup 2005
• U.S. Women's Amateur 2007
• U.S. Senior Open 2009
• BMW Championship 2012, 2016

Design history

• Ongoing: Pete Dye revisions over the following decades
• 2024: Tom Doak renovation sharpening the Dyes' original features