Q&A: Protecting Harbour Town, the Wrigley Field and Fenway Park of the PGA Tour

USA Today

18-04-2025

Q&A: Protecting Harbour Town, the Wrigley Field and Fenway Park of the PGA Tour
On May 5, two weeks after the finish of the RBC Heritage, the Pete Dye-designed Harbour Town Golf Links will close for an extensive restoration project. Serving as the player consultant for the restoration will be five-time RBC Heritage winner Davis Love III and his company Love Golf Design, who were also responsible for the Atlantic Dunes course at The Sea Pines Resort. Harbour Town is scheduled to reopen in November.
Originally designed by Pete Dye with his wife Alice and the assistance of Jack Nicklaus – working on one of his first architectural projects – Harbour Town opened in 1969 and has hosted the PGA Tour's RBC Heritage ever since. The tournament has produced one of the game's most impressive list of winners, from Arnold Palmer in the inaugural event to Nicklaus, Johnny Miller (twice), and Tom Watson (twice) in the early days to Greg Norman, Payne Stewart, Jordan Spieth, and Scottie Scheffler more recently.
In a recent interview, Love and Sea Pines Director of Sports Operations John Farrell offered insight into the restoration.
Q: Describe the project.
Davis Love III:It started as a redo of the infrastructure, then as the team talked about it – Allan McCurrach from McCurrach Construction, PGA Tour vice president of design Steve Wenzloff, Jon Wright, Head Golf Superintendent, Harbour Town Golf Links, John Farrell, the Goodwins who own Sea Pines, and some others – questions kept coming up. 'Is there anything that we're missing?' 'Have things changed from Pete Dye's original concept?' 'What can we do this time so we don't have to do any more work for a long time?'
These are all people who have the utmost respect for Pete Dye and what he did on this golf course. We all are committed to protecting the strategy and integrity of Pete's design.
John Farrell: Davis is just as respectful to the history of the golf course as the rest of us. He's said he doesn't want to put his name on the scorecard; this is still going to be a Pete Dye golf course. There won't be places where people go, 'Oh my goodness, where did this come from?' Most changes will have to be pointed out to people, whether they are the Tour pros who come back once a year or our members.
Q: What sort of changes have taken place over the years that you'll look at?
DLIII: I see a few things, but I really can't come up with any crazy changes. It's still the original, honest Pete Dye strategy.
There's less sand around the green at 7, the dirt is a little higher around the boards at 13, the pot bunker at 14 is maybe not as hard as it was while the bunker at 16 looks a little different than what Pete built. We were able to refer to lots of photographs and video of the early days and we can add back some of what we see in those old pictures.
Q: How will you balance making changes for both the pro and the resort guest or member, the average golfer?
DLIII: I think we can grab a little length here and there to protect the course from modern Tour pros. But we have to protect it from people playing from the forward tees, too; they should enjoy it and be fairly challenged. Not every hole will be easy, but not all of them hard, either.
We recently talked to a foursome of members playing 14. At that hole, average golfers almost all avoid the pot bunker long left. But if you want to get on the green on Sunday of the tournament when the pin is way back, you have to challenge it, and if you pull your shot, it's a big penalty. That's what Pete intended.
JF: I just talked to a group of resort guests who loved the course. They said, 'There aren't many other courses when you can hit it in the fairway and still have to shape it around a tree to get to the pin.' You have to shape your shots, hit it high, low, turn it right, turn it left. You're going to have 14 dirty clubs when you're finished.
DLIII: We need the tee on number 2 that's back across the road to make it long enough for longer hitters. But we won't change the green complex because it's brilliant, it does so many things in a small space. It's a masterpiece and needs to be protected.
How else is Harbour Town special?
DLIII: Think about great courses like Oakmont and Chicago Golf Club. They were built in fields and then someone had to come up with strategies and fill in the space.
But Pete carved Harbour Town out of the woods. No one had ever done that before! He went through the woods and left trees in place as hazards. The 8th hole is just incredible genius because of the pine trees, the oak tree, and one little hazard. You have to drive it the right distance down the right side. It's the simplest hole, but I remember making a triple bogey there during the tournament. If you don't play it the way Pete wanted you to, if you get too aggressive, you're going to pay a price.
Coming down number 2 there's a little waste area 30-40 yards short of the green. Those oak trees protect from long hitters going at any right hole position. If you get way down the left perfectly so the trees on the left aren't in the way, you can bounce the ball onto the green. Going down the right side, you can be blocked. I was once by the trees on the right and tried hitting a 6-iron over them. I got it high enough – and ended up in the bleachers.
JF: Trees can be in the way on 14 holes. You have to look at the tee location sheet before you play.
DLIII: Another reason we want to keep Pete's design is that anybody can win on that golf course. The tournament has always been won by the top players of their generation, but not all the same kind of player. Long hitters and short hitters; tall players and short players. Anybody who is playing well can win. That's what I always explained in the press room after I won: Coming when the tournament did, I was ready for the Masters. I was playing good golf and my game came out on a course that rewards the best player for that week.
It's not lucky. If a guy is putting great, Harbour Town is a great place for it. If he's hitting his driver – or in my day his 1- or 2-iron – well, he's going to get rewarded. Look at the winners: Jack Nicklaus and Stewart Cink. Boo Weekley, Loren Roberts, the great putters. You certainly never would have picked in 1987 that the longest player on Tour was going to win.
JF: Tom Doak was here and said, 'Please tell me you're not going to tinker with a course that revolutionized course design. You're one of the few that didn't mess up a Pete Dye design.' Then Davis said the same thing.
There's no ego here, there's no one saying 'I want to show what I've got.' The job here is to honor Pete Dye. That's why we are very deliberately calling this project a restoration in respect to Pete's original design.
DLIII: I've heard it referred to as a 'refresh.'
JF: It's really a golf course protection process. Harbour Town is the Wrigley Field or the Fenway Park of the PGA Tour. We need to protect it.