To answer the original question, I would imagine that the worst pedigreed courses out there (and I saw one recently) would be:
first owner self designs, despite not knowing what he is doing, to save $$$
Second owner remodels, despite not knowing what he is doing, to save $$$, because he bought the course from the first owner in a distress sale, and can't afford to fix it up with a gca and contractor.
There may be 5000 owner-owner pedigrees, if you include owner-pro, owner-super, owner- land planner/engineer, etc.
You get the point. PGA National has always been a very good course, despite its limitations in housing, flat topo, etc. I have some nice memories of playing there and seeing some features we had never considered at KN, like combo grass and sand bunkers. In a small way, it led to me going out on my own to try some new ideas. Also, hooked up with Larry Nelson at the time he won the PGA there. (BTW, wonder if they are going to add ball markers to the green contours as a factor to influence putts?)
It was time for a redo and instead of going back to Faz, they hired JN, perhaps because of the tournament connection, maybe because he is local, or because Faz is basically retired so whats the difference between JN associates and TF associates, etc. and for sure, JN is both a good choice and top gca.
Don't really know why they didn't go back to Faz, but in this biz, most often, a new gca is picked for remodels over the original.