Virginia Tech's River Course Finds A Bigger Audience As It Turns 5

Length, length, and more length … Pete Dye’s answer to the drive and chip style of play in today’s long-ball era has endless possibilities.

On Aug. 21, 2005, after a makeover from one of golf’s finest architects, the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech was unveiled to Southwest Virginia. Now, as it nears a fifth birthday, the course is catching the eyes of many across the country. The course has been recognized by national magazines such as Golf Digest, GolfWeek and Sports Illustrated. Just recently, it was selected by the NCAA to host a 2011 NCAA golf regional.

For the 7,655 yard monster of sheer visual intimidation, it’s only a matter of time before the PGA Tour takes notice.

“It’s what the golf course deserves … anybody that’s played it has expressed how unique it is …it’s very futuristic,” said John Norton, head PGA professional and general manager at the River.

As far as sport goes, golf has always been different, puzzling even.

Unlike most sports, which usually require a high degree of strength, speed, size, agility and teamwork, golf is known for being a thinking person’s game of exact precision and finesse played with a set of clubs and a white dimpled ball over a course of challenges.

In the past, courses were designed in a way that tested a player’s shot-making ability throughout the entire set of clubs from tee to green.

Today, however, the game is so much different. The modern athlete, with the help of high-tech golf equipment, is turning the punishing game into a drive, chip and putt. Bomb it off the tee, lob-wedge to 10 feet, birdie!

Precision has been replaced with power, altering the nature of the game’s original design, and as a result, golf courses of yesteryear are having trouble holding their own against the game’s best and newest.

If there was ever a golf course made to turn back the clock on the best players in the world, professional and non-professional alike, the River course was it.

All the signature elements that make a Pete Dye golf course difficult are present; open links style, fairway-lining bunkers, pot bunkers and tiny tabletop greens are ready to challenge the golfer on every hole. Adding to the difficulty is the picturesque surroundings only nature can offer, like the New River and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“It’s very unique in a sense … I don’t know that there’s a lot of golf courses in the world that have a setting that you have here,” said Norton. “There’s much more demand when you’re out there playing, much more thought process needs to go into playing a golf course like this.”

The course’s defining characteristic, however, is its length from the black tees. Its 7,655 yards await the highly-skilled player, turning the drive and chip of today into a mere dream. “Hit it hard, then hit it hard again,” reads the pro tip in the yardage book for the 497-yard par-4 15th hole.

Virginia Tech associate head golf coach Brian Sharp believes the length to be the course’s main defense against today’s long-hitting player. “It’s designed for the modern game … the length in particular … as far as the collegiate and professional players hit it, the length has to be there,” Sharp explained.

Because of the length, solid ball-striking, precise shot-making and thoughtful planning, like in the past, becomes a premium, said Sharp. While that makes for an extremely difficult challenge for the average to above average player, it makes for an attractive destination to host some of golf’s better players, including PGA tour tournaments.

And, if that were to happen, Sharp wouldn’t be the least surprised. “The River would more than hold its own against the professional players … it would be fun to see those guys here.”

Even a major championship, such as a PGA Championship or a U.S. Open, could be in the River’s future. Although that may seem a bit far-fetched, it has happened before—and continues happening—to Pete Dye courses.

Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., only 27 years after it was built, hosted the 1991 PGA Championship. Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., the site of this year’s PGA Championship, is perhaps even more telling. Only six years after it was built by Dye, it was also hosting a PGA Championship in 2004.

“The golf course itself is certainly good enough to host that type of an event,” said Sharp.

It still remains to be seen whether or not the River has all the pieces necessary to complete a PGA tournament puzzle, said Norton and Sharp.

And, like Mark Cote, director of golf maintenance at the River suggested, maybe the PGA is not an immediate goal. “Becoming one of the top university courses in the nation is the direction we are going in rather than doing any PGA events right now,” said Cote.

Nevertheless, there’s no question the golf course alone has what it takes to get the folks who are good to come out and play.

“I think the future is very bright for what could be done here,” said Norton. “It is another ring … on the finger of the Virginia Tech world.”