Everyone knows about the big name courses where someone started a club, built the course, and spent his life tinkering with it (or at least intended to) - Crump at PV, Fownes at Oakmont.

What other ones are out there, big or small, well known or unheard of?

I know of at least one other - there is a course in Canton, Ohio, called Clearview that was built many years ago by a dedicted man who still owns it and operates it (at least as of a couple years ago).

Feel free to list others where someone may have only had peripheral involvement in designing or constructing it if the person in question then dedicated his life to the course.

David, That's interesting that you bring up Mark's name as I immediately thought of him until i read george's description.

He said that one of the criteria's was that the person, "spent his life tinkering with it..."

Mark sold his interest in Kingsbarns a while back and sao will not spend his life "tinkering with it." If I was a betting man, I would say that he intends to do the same with Castle Stuart.

I believe that he intends to keep searching for great sites, developing them and then walking away from each. It will be many years before he finds that one special spot for him to keep tinkering with...

I would suggest that Donald Ross and Pinehurst #2 fit the bill...

I don't think Mark Parsinen is equivalent to Henry Fownes, because he's always hired an architect to "assist" him.

The owner/developer of Bayonne would be a better candidate, but since the construction process involved coating the earthwork with Portland cement before finish work was completed, I doubt that he will tinker with the course too much -- he might not even be allowed to tinker.

Ken Tomlinson, who did Tidewater in Myrtle Beach, would be a good candidate.

George,

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of mom & pop courses built and developed and designed and owned by people who spend a good percentage of their life at that effort.

I played one in upstate New York this past week;  a nine-holer opened in 1963 called Pleasant Knolls (aka "Peters Patch") that was recently bought-out by the Turning Stone Casino and marketed as one of their "quick, fun nine-holes" deals.  It was designed by Ed and Doris Peters.

I've played at least 200 of these type of courses, and there is something charming on the designs of each of them.   In this case, there is a par three hole, the 4th, that had a "blind shot" concept I've never seen before, which I outlined on Tom Doak's "Blind shot" thread.

Whenever I'm feeling a little jaded and perhaps a tad too uppity, it helps a great deal to get back to roots, albeit at $15 for nine.

Mike
a really good post, and to me an important one: I don't think it can be mentioned enough. I also think that, if we but had fresh eyes with which to see, we'd recognize how many of these mom and pop courses provide wonderful golf, plain and simple.  Usually very walkable, usually playing fairly firm, usually with lots of short Par 4s (made even trickier as they were never 'designed' that way), almost be definition products of very little earth-moving, and the natural charm and quirk that goes with that...well, I'm preaching to the converted I know, but I wanted to remind MYSELF most of all. It reminds me of the very short par 5 you described on another thread. You LOVE playing it. What else should we ask for?

Peter  

Peter,

Thanks for the encouraging words.

I'm sure it may run against the grain of the "best courses of the world" discussion that's routinely prevalent here, but I think it bears remembering as most of us have humbler roots.

For my own part, I often find that when I need to get reinvigorated in the game, or tire of the cost, service, maintenance, and snootiness that accompanies so much of "great" gold, a quick visit to a place like Pleasant Knolls is the proper rejuvenating medicine.

About 25 miles south of Boston,MA is a golf course called Green Harbor. The course was designed,built, revised and managed by Manny Francis, a legend in the golf course community in New England. Manny passed away about ten years ago but the course is still operated by his son, Manny Jr. who still performs all of the aforementioned duties.

  Manny was a golf course superintendent from the old school who spent many hours working with native bentgrasses. His experiments led to the development of Vesper bentgrass, which was named for the renowned Vesper Country Club (Ross design)  in Tyngsboro,Ma. The greens at Vesper are still this strain of grass.

 Manny purchased a parcel of land in the late 1960’s in Marshfield and built 9 holes, than added 9 a few years later. He was on the course daily, shaping features and installing irrigation with his foreman, Dahn Tibbett, who went on to form DHT Golf Services. His beloved Vesper grass is still being played on today at Green Harbor. The course has never seen another architect and never will. The layout is flat but actually very interesting, with big slow greens and lush fairways. It’s a daily fee course and its been packed with golfers since the day it opened.