The Buzz in New Courses: Mining for Quality Over Quantity

[Jud_T]

This is the title of an article in the March issue of Golf Digest by Ron Whitten.  It's a nice piece which highlights Streamsong, Cabot and Firekeeper amongst interesting new course development in North America.  The quote that caught my eye was the following contention by Ron: "Some of the courses might even turn out to be exceptional, because with fewer projects, architects can devote more time and attention to detail".  Kind of hard to believe that guys like Doak and Coore have been slacking on detail in the past, but is he on to something more broadly?

[David_Tepper]

Jud -

I think that what you inferred from Whitten's comment (that fewer project might lead to more attention to detail that might result in exceptional courses) is a little unfair. Do you really think that Whitten was trying to say or imply that GCA's were "slacking" in their efforts to produce the best courses they could?

I have not read Whitten's article. Based on the sentence you have quoted, it seems all Whitten is saying is that, with less projects active in various GCA firms, the principals of those firms will be spending more time personally on those projects and will be delegating less work to their subordinates. In theory that should (or at least could) result in a better golf course.

Which would you rather have, a painting done by Rubens himself or a painting done by the apprentices that Rubens instructed and supervised?

DT       

[Mac Plumart]

is he on to something more broadly?

I think, without a doubt, yes.

Look at Ross' work.  He built a lot of courses, but it appears that the courses he spent a lot of time with and/or actually visited were his best.

[Mike Nuzzo]

I think Ron is saying that if you work on 1 project where you used to work on 4 it will get more attention than previously.
I also think that the competition for a course is so high that the scarcity of a project will keep those who land one very motivated.

A counter argument would be that there sure were a lot of wasted man hours in 2010 trying to get projects - just in Laredo alone.
Architects may be more distracted looking for work than doing the work.

Cheers

[Garland Bayley]

It seems to me that the logical conclusion is that the "few" courses Ron has worked on have to be world class, because he was not distracted by working on others.