On the "Does the Course Matter" thread Adrian Siff, Tom Doak and I posted some comments about multiple plays of the same course.
I started to total up my play, arbitrarily selecting 25+, +10, 5, 2 and 1 time each. Only my home club, the public course I frequented as a kid in Chicago and a few of my own designs where I have playing privileges topped 25 plays.
Only about a dozen of my own designs where I have playing privileges topped 10.
Only about a dozen courses around DFW or my childhood home of Chicago topped 5.
Less than two dozen courses around the world got 2 plays, including all the famous Open Scottish courses, SFGC, Riviera, Seminole, Royal Melbourne, (played all the others once while in town) World Woods (Pine Barrens), Hazeltine, Shoreacres, Colonial, Dallas National, Pinehurst No. 2, Pebble Beach, Sand Hills and some others I probably can't recall right now, both famous and unfamous.
All but a few of my own designs got at least one play! (Actually didn't get invited to the grand opening of a few!)
I imagine I have played well over 200 courses, including 70 of the top 100 or so. I guess I would love to jet set around the world playing the top courses, but as for most, life intervenes! And, even for a gca buff, if you are a golfer, 95+% of your rounds are played squeezed into your daily routine, not as a special trip.
For that matter, it just seems no matter how good a couse might be, given the cost and time, the second playing often goes down in percieved value, doesn't it? Maybe its because we don't want to spoil the special memories of our first trip there?