The North Course and South Course at Des Moines Golf and Country Club are the only two golf courses in the state of Iowa designed by world renowned golf course architect Pete Dye.   Construction on the interior 18 started in July of 1966. The other 18 construction followed the next year. On April 28, 1968 the "first ball" was hit by Green Chairman Chuck Smith opening the course for play.  The second golf course opened for play Labor Day of the same year.

 ("Pete") Dye, born December 29, 1925 in Urbana, Ohio to Paul and Elizabeth Dye, is a legend in the field of golf course design and construction throughout the expanding world of golf.

Considered in many circles to be the most influential golf course architect of the last five decades, Pete is now in his 80’s and still designing golf courses.  Pete comes by his career naturally.  His father designed and built a nine-hole golf course on his mother father’s farm in Urbana, Ohio, and Pete grew up playing and working on this course.  He won the Ohio State High School Championship and was medalist in the Ohio State Amateur.

 World War II interrupted his high school education and Pete served in the 82nd Airborne Infantry of the United States Army.  Upon his discharge, he attended Rollins College where he met Alice O’Neal.

 Alice and Pete were married in 1950 and Pete moved to Indianapolis where he became a star salesman for The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.  Before he was thirty years old, Pete was one of the few Midwest members of the Million Dollar Round Table.  During this time, he was also pursuing his golf career and won the 1958 Indiana State Amateur Championship after a runner-up finish in 1954 and 1955.  He also won the Indianapolis District Championship, participated in The Western Amateur and five USGA Amateurs, and played in the 1957 United States Open where he finished ahead of both Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

Pete served as Greens Chairman at the Country Club of Indianapolis for about eight years.  His interest in course maintenance continued and Pete began attending turf sessions at Purdue University under Dr. William Daniel.

 Although he was a champion golfer, Pete’s interest was really in the design and maintenance of a golf course.  He decided to leave the life insurance business to devote his time to designing and building golf courses.  Supporting the career change and partnering with him in the new venture, Alice accompanied Pete on a visit to noted golf course architect Bill Diddle in his log cabin at Woodland Country Club.  Mr. Diddle was not too encouraging about the economic rewards of the golf course architecture profession.  Undaunted, Pete and Alice pursued and began by building a nine hole course just south of Indianapolis called El Dorado, now titled Royal Oak Country Club.  Accomplishing this feat, they built their first 18-hole course, Heather Hills, now named Maple Creek Country Club.

 A 1963 trip to Scotland profoundly impacted Pete’s subsequent designs.  Touring the great Scottish courses, he was influenced by the features he saw; small greens, pot bunkers, undulating fairways and wooden bulkheads.  He began incorporating these concepts into his designs.  This, in turn, influenced future golf architects and Pete has been hailed as the father of modern golf course architecture.

 His first well-known course was Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, (construction began, 1964). It later hosted the 1991 PGA Championship, won by John Daly. In 1967, he designed The Golf Club near Columbus, Ohio, where he solicited input from a young Jack Nicklaus, a Columbus resident. The two would work together to design the acclaimed Harbour Town Golf Links, opened in 1969, the site of an annual PGA Tour event ever since.  Nicklaus credits Dye with significant influence on his own approach to golf course design.

 His designs are known for distinctive features, including the use of railroad ties to hold bunkers and small greens. His design for the Brickyard Crossing golf course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway utilized the dismantled outer retaining wall from the race track. He is known for designing the "world's most terrifying tee shot".  Known as the "Island Green", it is the 17th hole at TPC at Sawgrass located in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

 Pete is also acclaimed for his innovative, environmentally friendly designs.  He lent his expertise in the renovation of the Kampen Course of the Purdue University Brick Boilermaker Golf Complex.  The Kampen Course incorporates Pete’s drainage and irrigation designs and wetlands areas that help recycle and purify water that drains onto the course.  The course additionally serves as a living laboratory, combining turfgrass research and environmental studies.

 Dye received the 2003 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor.  In 2005, he became the sixth recipient of the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award.  In November 2008, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the Lifetime Achievement category.  He is only the 5th architect to be inducted to the Hall.

 Pete and his associate Tim Liddy are currently developing a master plan for the North and South golf courses so as changes are made to golf courses they will be in keeping with Pete’s design philosophy.