But, also, John assumes that the purpose of all golf courses is to make money, whereas my experience is that a lot of my best courses were built for clients who were focused on building a great course, and weren't overly concerned about how profitable it would be.
Tom-You are extremely lucky in that regard as I would imagine that a profit motive is at the forefront of most projects. Without any data I would venture a guess that north of 98% of new commissions would not have that luxury.
Tim:
Yes, as we all know, 90% of new American courses before the crash were driven by real estate development, because that was to be the source of the big profits the developers were after. And on all of those courses, putting golf holes in the right place took a back seat to the situation of the housing lots, and the courses suffered for it. I was lucky not to be in that niche of the business, because it's mostly gone, and because the architects who worked on those courses were more in the business of selling their brand than building great golf.
With that 90% gone, I don't think your number of 98% is anywhere close to correct now. We could maybe have an argument about whether Mike Keiser's motivation is profit motive, and he's developing more than 2% of new courses all by himself nowadays. But I can tell you that I've had lots of clients who were not too concerned about it, and I think Bill Coore would say the same, and probably a few other designers as well.
Years ago, clients of mine [the ones who ultimately failed to develop Erin Hills] were visiting Stonewall, and told my client there, Jack May, that their goal was not to make money on the project. Mr. May interrupted and told them never to say that, because you might as well say you are going to lose your investors' money. He recommended they tell people that they
"were not trying to make as much money as possible" from the project, which would set them apart without sounding naive. That's more what I meant.
My client for Tara Iti, Ric Kayne, has said in print that Tara Iti was a labor of love, but this new venture of a 36-hole resort is being built with profit in mind, and that he "hopes to make a dollar on it someday". I think that's his sense of humor's way of saying that building golf courses is not the most likely way for a successful businessman to make real money.