I really do believe that limiting yourself to discussing only courses you have seen in person to be a silly exercise...that being said....I have this gut feeling that if you would plot the green contours....not to scale...because of basic pad size differencials...you would find many of the greens at Cuscowilla, Sand Hills, Friars Head and Bandon Trails to be duplicates of each other...ie..products of a successful formula. Is this an incorrect observation..
John,
Yes, this would be an incorrect observation. The greens at Friar's Head are some of the best putting surfaces in the Game, but that is a pretty broad list of great putting surfaces from the Old Course to the National to Winged Foot, Pine Valley, Riviera and way, way many others. To compare Cuscowilla or Chechesse or Sand Hills to these would be an ultimate compliment.
I myself, have yet to see Coore & Crenshaw duplicate any green they have done before. In fact, when they are building their greens, it looks as if they have taken great time to get them perfect for the situation or strategies of any site in question.
I have sworn myself not to waste the day on the computer, and I'm probably going to be really busy tonight, so I'll end it here. But in closing, I will stake what they do, as what Tom doak does and Gil and Mike DeVries and others who take great time to shape and form greens themselves--actually getting on a sand cat and moving and shaping the green with a box blade--as being the guys who care most about their greens. I understand the Mike Strantz does the similar or at least stands by and watched it being done by others and maybe even Forrest Fezzler, and if thats true, then thats awesome too because they do want the green to work with the strategy from the fairway and around the green itself, even the entire golf hole.
Doing it from a drawing board in Montclair or Jupiter Hills or Palo Alto just doesn't get it done for me.