Alice Dye has been chosen as the 2017 recipient of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) Donald Ross Award.

Given to a person who has made a significant contribution to the game of golf and the profession of golf course architecture, the award will be presented to Dye at the 2017 ASGCA Annual Meeting in Jupiter, Florida, next May.

A native of Indianapolis, US, the then-named Alice O’Neal attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where she met Pete Dye. The couple married in 1950, and by 1955 had started to turn their thoughts to designing golf courses. In 1959, their first course – El Dorado in Greenwood, Indiana – was completed.

A highly-rated female amateur, Dye is well-known for the creation of a forward tee system for female players. A diagram entitled ‘Two Tee System for Women’ was published in the early 1970s.

Dye previously served as president of the ASGCA – the first female to do so – and has also served on the USGA Women’s Committee, the LPGD Advisory Council, the USGA Women’s Handicap Committee and as an independent director on the PGA Board.

“Alice Dye is a pioneer in our profession,” said ASGCA president Greg Martin. “An outstanding golfer, Alice exhibited a great influence to develop courses that are true championship calibre. She and Pete Dye were a dynamic duo, a genuine partnership, in every sense of the phrase.

“Long before it was fashionable, Alice was an advocate for women’s golf, thoughtful forward tees and playability for varying skill levels. Her ‘Two Tee System for Women’ was devised to accommodate female players with differing skill sets. This may seem obvious to us today, but when she came up with the system decades ago it was ahead of its time. She is devoted to mentoring young designers, and is tireless in her service to ASGCA and the profession of golf course architecture. I know my fellow ASGCA members join me in acknowledging Alice as very deserving of this award.”