Course Designers - Their Top 10 Sites

[Cgkdisc]

Here's a chart of U.S. Course Designers who have listed themselves as designers of at least 10 courses on DGCD. Not a comprehensive list but includes the ones I could think of and discovered. Tim G would need to compile a more comprehensive list. In addition, I'm certain there are more than Tim's list would indicate because many have not yet entered their designer info.

The idea here is that players may want to bag a particular designer's Top 10 Sites like the Robert Trent Jones (course) Trail in ball golf. The list ranked Designers by the rating of their 10th rated course on the assumption that the average rating of their top 10 would also be higher. A Designer got a Multicourse Bonus based on the number of other top-rated courses a traveler could play when visiting some of their sites. If any of the courses in their list were played in Pro Worlds. The number of 9-to-17-hole courses in their list is shown.

Houck dominates the Top 10 ratings as might be expected as the only one listed known to be working (more than) full-time for many years primarily as a designer. The various data elements give an insight into a designer's activities. For example, some designers have primarily worked near home with all of their top courses in one or two states. Some designers primarily focused on public parks with few or no pay-to-play courses. Others were hired to develop pay to play operations including Biscoe hiring himself for Hawk Hollow.

If you are looking to bag a tour with the highest course quality and compact travel footprint, look at Biscoe, Dropcho and Duster's tours. And for technical masochists, the Johnny Sias "woodpecker" tour would be tough to beat.

At the bottom of the list are two up and coming designers, Vicich and Leiviska, who barely made it to 10 courses. They both have several 9s in their lists which is why their 10th rated courses have low ratings. Expect them to move up the list as they get the opportunity to do more 18s.

If I've missed anyone, please let me know. There are veteran designers like Greenwell and Hosfeld that may not have gotten their names listed as designers on some courses. I'm also surprised I didn't find a Michigan designer with at least 10. But when looking at a sampling of Michigan courses, most did not have a designer noted.

[Steve West]

Did you exclude private courses?

[Cgkdisc]

Originally Posted by Steve West

Did you exclude private courses?

No. I just used the default search which includes Private and just added designer names. But a course had to have at least one review/rating to be counted. (You appear to have nine at the moment.) In some cases, I had to try a few different name versions to hopefully find all of their courses such as Duster Hoffman and Don Hoffman.

[elmexdela]

broken record here but if cale wasnt a pro dg player no one would know his name in the course design world

and if people played his courses without his name behind it they would think its easily forgettable

[elmexdela]

i also know im a spoiled brat who lives in the luxury land of ck and tm designs

[air show]

Eric McCabe has his name on many courses here in Kansas and surrounding states.

[Cgkdisc]

Originally Posted by air show

Eric McCabe has his name on many courses here in Kansas and surrounding states.

I should have thought of that. I checked Convers, Parker, Paulson and Lowe, each with less than 10. Eric never joined the DGCD so he wasn't on my checklist of potential designers.

[Cgkdisc]

Originally Posted by air show

Eric McCabe has his name on many courses here in Kansas and surrounding states.

Looks like he would be listed after HB Clark with The Farm at Quail Valley in Winfield, 4.75, 3.69, 4, -, 2, 3, -

[SocraDeez]

Originally Posted by Cgkdisc

If I've missed anyone, please let me know. There are veteran designers like Greenwell and Hosfeld that may not have gotten their names listed as designers on some courses. I'm also surprised I didn't find a Michigan designer with at least 10. But when looking at a sampling of Michigan courses, most did not have a designer noted.

Yeah there's probably some bias in the list toward designers that are active or were active in some way on dgcoursereview being more likely to be credited on this site for their work. Wish the course directory here were easier to query and extract data from.

[Cgkdisc]

Originally Posted by SocraDeez

Yeah there's probably some bias in the list toward designers that are active or were active in some way on dgcoursereview being more likely to be credited on this site for their work. Wish the course directory here were easier to query and extract data from.

The Designer line was added some time later after the base directory was created so many designers may not have known it was there until they added a new course.