Many people who maintain golf courses have used tractors to keep greens at the proper height.
Designing those courses has been part of the storied career of Pete Dye, who developed the links at Florida's TPC at Sawgrass and Wisconsin's Whistling Straits. The latter recently hosted the PGA Championship.
According to a report in Illinois' Springfield News-Sun, Dye is still the only golfer from Champaign County to capture a state championship in the sport. He completed the feat in 1943 while attending Urbana High School.
Dye's father, Paul, constructed the country club in Urbana on land owned by his in-laws.
"I remember watering greens and when I was a little bigger pushing the lawn mower and when I was a little bigger cutting the greens," Pete Dye told the newspaper.
Now 84, he continues to play golf. Rather than hop on a cart to get around the links, Dye insists on walking the courses, which he has always done.
This year's PGA Championship was captured by Martin Kaymer after he bested Bubba Watson in a playoff.
Pete Dye's past has often found him on, or designing, golfing greens
Pete Dye has designed a number of golf courses.