TXSeve:
30+ "good" courses per state (on average) sounds high to me.
ND,SD,MT,WY,NB,AK,ME,NE,VT,IA - they skew the average way down all by themselves.
As to CA,NY,PA,TX,FL,NC,HI - they have 30+ "good" courses each.
My rough figuring assumes that the total number of "great", "outstanding", and "good" courses in any state is about equal to 3X the number of such courses that are in the collective G/GD/GW Top 100 for that state. That's probably about 450 total. Subtract out the consensus Top 50 that are "great" or "outstanding" and you're left with about 400 that are "good". The rest are mostly "ordinary/OK" and more than a few are "pretty lousy". The small minority at the end are just plain "bad".
Maybe I'm too picky. I've played at least 10 courses in FL alone that many people say are "good" that, to me, are most definitely "ordinary". I'd have to check my list of courses played to remember what they are.
Tim Weiman:
Since golf is so hard for 95% of all golfers (NGF says the US average score is about 101), I'm afraid lots of "bad" golf courses are a challenge to that 95%.
I think my definition of "good" has to be more from an architectural and aesthteic perspective.