When looking at the architects of Golf Digest’s Top 100 courses, past and present, it is not surprising that the most well known designers have the most courses on the listings. A great majority of the courses on the public list have been built in the last 25 years. When you look at the list of Top 100 courses including the private courses, you see many more of the so called classics that are 25 to 100 years old. If you think that one of your favorite architects should have more courses ranked, it is probably because so many of their great designs are private courses.
The three gentleman that have the most courses on the public course lists lead by a significant margin. Tom Fazio, Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus each have 19. The next three also have listings in the double digits; Robert Trent Jones, Jr. has 12, his father Robert Trent Jones, Sr. has 10 and Arnold Palmer also has 10.
Below are the architects that have at least two courses included on the present or past rankings:
Donald Ross and Hurdzan & Fry both have 6 listings.
Rees Jones and Coore & Crenshaw each have 5 courses listed.
With 4 courses included are Mike Strantz, Jim Engh, Tom Doak, Arthur Hills and Jerry Pate.
Bob Cupp, Jeff Brauer, David McLay Kidd and Dick Wilson are at 3 courses.
Those that have 2 courses are Rick Smith, Tom Weiskopf, William Bell, Greg Norman, Roger Rulewich and Tim Liddy.
There are 48 other architects that have one design on the present or past Golf Digest Top 100 Rankings.
There you have it. Twenty five golf course architects have designed 151 of the 192 courses. In other words, this group of 25 designers have done 80% of the Top 100 public courses. I am not sure that this means anything significant, I just thought it was an interesting fact. It could mean that it is a tough fraternity to break into, or it could mean that the more established and famous names have a little bit of an edge when those doing the judging mark their scores. It probably just means that their firms get most of the new work. The only thing that does matter is how you the golfer enjoy the courses you play. Of the 149 I have been able to play to date, I can honestly say that I have enjoyed almost all them regardless of the architect. The more you play, the more drawn you will be toward certain architects and their style of course. At this point of my journey I would have to list my favorites in no particular order as Pete Dye, Arthur Hills, Hurdzan & Fry, Mike Strantz, Jim Engh, Tom Doak, David McLay Kidd and Coore & Crenshaw.
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