Matt,
How do you know I didn't choose option C?
I was merely trying to say it would be unfair to judge a man who devotes a smaller percentage of his time to architecture than say Rees Jones, Tom Fazio ,or Tom Doak,Bill Coore, Kelly Blake Moran ,Gil Hanse, Kelly Blake Moran and a host of other full time architects.
I also would define him as succesful, the same as the ones (and many others) mentioned above.
Perhaps my quotation marks around the word successful threw you off.
It really doesn't matter what i think if his clients are happy and more importantly, others continue to sign up.
That said, and since you asked
The worst redesign I've ever played was Norman's Great White at Doral. He inherited a functional golf course located on a pretty piece of property with massive mature Ficus trees and Australian pines lending it the character and maturity rarely found on a Florida course.
And blew up the par 3 course.
He went with a "desert theme" completely leveling the entire property and ALL trees which previously had been blocking the urban blight and industrial buildings surrounding the property.
Tons sand was brought in for wall -to -wall waste desert bunkers became the new rough. Hundreds of rediculous palm trees were brought in.
AWFUL.
And overlooked by a ghetto and indutrial buildings which were blocked out prior to the "desert" treatment.
Some of the worst golf holes I've ever played. I've played it about a hundred times as it was the ONLY course I could get on when teaching clients at Doral because the rest of the courses had to handle the overflow from an empty course.
Spent 12 million-could've done a much job by building 5-10 new tees and regrassing the place for about 10-20 % of what they spent. And it would've been about the equivalent of the Blue course at Doral.
Green fee went from $80-$250 to finance it -except nobody would play it so it sat empty.
I've also played Medalist which was OK but it would be somewhat difficult to screw up with one of the greats of architecture at his side.
I've played Temenos 10-15 times and I find it very redundant and the routing is such that you're continually playing holes with hazards/jungle right and left on firm fast fairways with no rough in high crosswinds. The two holes that play downwind have bunkers in front so inevitably the players are playing from 40-50 yards over the green in the firm conditions.
I guess firmness(which is great) doesn't show up on the office video so you can just use the same greensite you used at the last course,regardless of conditions.
As you can see I don't seek out Norman courses (I leave that to the heavy lifters).
I'm from the school that says if you hurt your head banging it against the wall -stop.
I play courses and take friends and clients to courses that I think they'll enjoy.
I have great respect for Greg Norman the golfer and businessman. I love his story about rising up from assistant pro to World golfer #1-and his drive to succeed at everything he does. I rooted for him hard for years and I still would.
I just think it's rediculous to think someone who puts a small percentage of their time into his craft could ever compare with men who have devoted their lives to studying architecture, working on crews with great mentors, worked on miniscule budgets while acquiring credibility, traveled overseas repeatedly to study the great works of the UK---- in short know what works and have the HANDS ON (and by hands on I mean actually at the site)experience to know what works on a variety of sites.
There's a reason there are a lot of Doak , Coore, Hanse butt boys out there.(with apologies to all the other dedicated successful full time architects)
They've paid their dues and are finally getting jobs (and more importantly sites)that for years went to the Palmer, Nicklaus's,
Players of the world and the results speak for themselves.