It was almost the Byrd Course at Landfall. Originally master-planned by Atlanta city planner and golf course architect Willard Byrd, the community’s focus originally was to be Wilmington residents and maybe a few people from around North Carolina. 

Jane Akers inherited the property, formerly Pembroke Park, and renamed it Landfall. 

When her husband, Tony, suddenly died in 1976, she dropped development plans and left the area. Eight years later, her sale of the 2,200 acres to J.P. Goforth stipulated that the original plans be used.

It soon became clear that the best use of the property required larger lots and a higher-profile image with marketing beyond the region. 

Soon after, renowned golf course designer Pete Dye was recruited.

“They started construction in late 1985,” said Drew Pierson, Landfall’s head pro until 1992. Dye and Pierson knew each other in Connecticut, and Pierson was soon added “to work as a go-between for Dye and Goforth. We planted eight holes in the summer of 1986, and they had 10 inches of rain the next day. We had to start over again.” 

The planned opening was delayed a year, finally ready for play in November 1987 – a 25th anniversary milestone the development’s country club is celebrating this month.

Landfall would later add a course designed by golfer Jack Nicklaus, but it was the initial course that laid the footprint backbone for the housing development and spread the buzz for potential new residents. 

James Pace, greenskeeper for several years, began working on the construction crew in 1986. 

“Once the final grade was done, Pete Dye would come in. He didn’t work off blueprints. It was just out of his head,” Pace said.

He and others worked side-by-side with Dye when he decided to completely change a hole, directing the work on the spot.

In November 1987, Pierson set up a temporary pro shop in the maintenance building and opened the course. “That was the way we worked through that winter,” he said.

The 5th hole was closest to the building, so they sent golfers off to play 5 through 11, then they finished on 12 to 4. Play was brisk with locals and visitors. “We had a lot of sales prospects who came in and had heard about the Dye Course.”

Dye learned the game and business of golf on a nine-hole course his father built on family land in Ohio. While in the US. Army at Fort Bragg, he served as greenskeeper on the Donald Ross-designed base course. 

“[I] went over to see Pinehurst every day and played the golf course at Pinehurst No. 2 for six solid months, and I got to know Mr. Donald Ross,” Florida Golf Magazine quoted Dye as saying when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008. “… he would come over and watch us play golf, and most of the time the captain and colonel hauled me over there. They didn’t know who Mr. Ross was, but the other fellow walking with him was JC Penney, and they all new him.”

Pierson said he remains in touch with Dye, who is in his 80s.

Dye’s work might be masterful, but the natural beauty of the land is likely the true star. Giant live oaks line the course where the Landfall Tradition collegiate golf tournament is staged, and the 1995 and 2010 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships were fought. 

In 1986, as construction began, “what captured my imagination most … was the land. It was so beautiful and so raw. I was fascinated with the project, so I relocated down here just to do that project,” said registered land surveyor Brian Hobbs, who flagged the clearing limits for the course. 

“When we first started, we would start to work at sunrise, and we would have to finish an hour before the sun went down because there was nothing but dirt paths and if you got stuck there was no way to get out,” he said. “It took a while to tame the property enough to access the back remote parts and get out safely.”