Elite Traveler Spring 2020

INSPIRE TOP GOLF

SWAN SONG LINKS AT PERRY CABIN, ST MICHAELS, MARYLAND, USA

For much of Pete Dye’s career, the esteemed golf architect designed courses that were equally striking for their beauty and infuriating for their difficulty. A shot that lands in the fairway at Harbour Town Golf Links (built in the late 1960s), for example, might still present golfers with an obstructed view of the green. Dye’s wife, Alice — an accomplished competitive golfer — often tweaked Dye’s designs in discreet ways, making themmore playable for the average amateur. Only a short time before Alice’s death in February 2019, the Links at Perry Cabin — the last course that Pete and Alice designed together — opened on Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore in St Michaels, Maryland. A bit softer than Dye’s infamously challenging layouts, the 18 holes that make up Perry Cabin’s links still exhibit design features that have become characteristic — if not signature — components of the architect’s work. Extensive mounding and sloped contours will challenge players with uneven lies, especially for those who miss the fairway. Railroad ties make appearances here and there. The course even includes a par-3 with an island green: The 17th hole is all but a mirror image of the 17th at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida; the only difference being that the green’s shape and the placement of the singular pot bunker are inverted (and the green is generously wider…by all of two feet). The course may still infuriate those who always reach for their drivers on the tee box, but players who can identify holes’ prudent options — and play them accordingly —will find that this Dye design is a bit less severe than some of the architect’s more infamous creations. linksatperrycabin.com