As impressive as his resume is the careers he helped spawn. Aside from family members, guys like Tom Doak got their start working for Pete Dye. Even Nicklaus got his feet wet in course design when he worked with Dye on Harbour Town.
In his book Tom Doak praises Dye highly. I struggled with that a bit. Doak is the consummate minimalist. Dye pushes a lot of dirt around. They seem to have very different design styles. I think I understand Doak's philosophy and it seems quite different from what I perceive Dye's to be. However, having not read much on/by Pete Dye and having never played one of his tracks I'm sure I'm missing his vision.
I agree with your point about contrasting styles, and it's a good one. However, having spent a lot of time on golfclubatlas, where Doak does a fair amount of posting, I think it's not so much the design style that Doak took from Dye, but the opportunity. Doak is one in a long list of guys who Pete Dye brought on board and freely showed them the ropes of golf course design. I think more than anything, Doak is grateful for Dye's willingness to bring a kid on his crew and let him learn, grow, and move on. Dye was a mentor to a lot of architects.
