Lou, I too wish to keep things from being nit picky, but Chris Kane wrote -
If he'd designed one (1) course on his own considered to be great by the golfing community, his comments might have some credibility.
To which you replied-
Nicklaus has one course in Golf Magainze's top 25 worldwide, and two in the top 50. BTW, your definition of great is very narrow. There are probably in excess of 30,000 courses worlwide. 1% is an arbitrary number, probably way too low in most any other context of what constitutes greatness, but it fits my definition.
Lou, Chris said 'on his own', which I suspect you have missed, rather than conveniently ignored. Ed echoed my sentiments exactly.
Lou,
Out of curiosity what are the Nicklaus courses you are referring to? I assume Muirfield Village is one.
As for the definition of greatness, I suppose it's subjective. Some are more discerning than others. To work with your example, there are more than 30,000 professional golfers in history, and far fewer than 1% would have any claim to greatness. I would think that less than 1% of courses on the planet are truly 'great' - a term frightfully overused today.
MM