[Jeff_Brauer]

I have designed over 50 new courses (most nowhere near classics, but new courses nonetheless) while some of my similarly aged brethren in ASGCA have done a third of that or less.  I don't ask why, I just keep trying to improve.

Jeff:


What age were you when you designed your first course on your own?  I see that as a good indicator of how many you'll wind up doing, the same way it is in baseball, where a 23-year-old rookie doesn't project to anywhere near the same career as a 19-year-old.

Well, age 12, if you count theoretical napkin doodles.  Age 25 if you consider the first project KN let me do mostly on my own (Lake Arrowhead next door to Sand Valley) and 30 or 31 if you count as head of my own firm.  I walked into Ken's office on my 29th BD and quit because I wanted to start my own deal before 30, but it took a year or so to get my actual first 18 hole gig, and even that was contractually a co-design for/with Larry Nelson.  I had two nine hole extensions that first year (Holdrege NB and Northwood CC in Shreveport LA) along with the usual mish mash of small projects.

Now you have me curious. I may go back and check on a year by year basis to see how many of each project type I had in specific years (sort of like a golfer having no majors for five years, then 2 in a year, etc.)

[JC Urbina]

Mike,


Thanks for the reply, I thought you were gauging a trend.



It is interesting that when Ron did the article golf was in the boom cycle.  My guess is that Jeff, Craig, John and others were busy trying to get to every project, ah the good old days.  Each one selling a style that people were gravitating to.  Today, that same consumer has aged along with the people who provided that architectural need.   We now have two segments of the design era still working, sometimes barely, 70 'and 80's theme and the 90's and early 2000 genre. Will always have the Golden Age of design, that is why it is so important to retain and restore as many of the greats as possible.  Will still have new course being built and that's a good thing after all it is part of the cycle of golf.


Will see where golf design takes us. In the not too distant future  how does one ball, one club and a group of friends with no par sound to you?

[Tom_Doak]

Now you have me curious. I may go back and check on a year by year basis to see how many of each project type I had in specific years (sort of like a golfer having no majors for five years, then 2 in a year, etc.)

I know that, for myself, when we were did 2-3 new courses in a year in our busier years, I didn't have as much time to go look at future prospects, so our workload tended to be a bit of a roller coaster.  Typical small-business problem, I guess, but I just never wanted to solve it by hiring a "sales guy".

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