At the risk of delving into some potentially controversial territory with this group, I would be quite remiss not to offer up the oeuvre of Robert Muir Graves.
This was a man who took a very average golf game and yet created 75 courses that are played to this day by golfers of all skill and economic levels. He never worked for anyone else (in fact, the only designer he even considered working for in the late 50's was the noted landscape architect Thomas Church), instead being self-taught in the age of Trent Jones.
His work throughout the western U.S. is ubiquitous to say the least, with most of his courses being a product of their times, the 1960's through the 1980's. For the most part they feature very good routings on fairly good parcels of land that lent themselves to the creation of courses that the average guy could navigate around in a timely fashion with the promise of a cool beverage at the finish.
Some of his work that has fared better than others would have to include the original 18 at Port Ludlow just west of Seattle, Canterwood just southwest of Seattle, La Purisima (with Damian Pascuzzo) outside of Santa Barbara and numerous others. While the majority of his work was in the west, he did venture forth to Malaysia and into Canada.
I know that many on this site would have the tendency to lump most of his other work into one camp; I simply would like to say that comparisons of that nature are unfair and do not tell the full story. Few of his creations have failed for either economic or agronomic reasons and are still a challenge to those who play them every day of the year.
Renovations abounded as well for this man's career, and this is indeed a Pandora's box of potentially controversial discourse. I just want to point out that we all operate within the time frame that chooses us. We don't choose it. He did a good job of fulfilling the wishes of those who hired him for the purposes of the time. Quite simply, times have now changed and some of his prior work has come in for some change itself. That, my friends, is evolution.
As a mentor, I couldn't have asked for a finer individual from whom to learn the basics of golf design. His wit was keen and his interests both within and without golf were extensive.
All of which gives me pause whenever I read scathing reviews of works done in another time for reasons and goals long since forgotten. For all who knew him, he is missed. For many more who didn't, they'll get up at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, tee off around 7:00 a.m. and then cuss him on around the third hole. Then they'll have a cool beverage when they finish then go on with their lives. Until next Saturday.