Ask John Houck about Course Design & Development

[HouckDesign]

Hi, everybody,

Several DGCR users have asked if John could answer questions about course design. John is very touched by this request and would like to participate on this thread regularly in spite of his very busy schedule. As his business partner, I will be helping with this thread in getting the questions answered directly from him.

Please feel free to ask questions pertaining to course design, his courses, and course development. We are committed to promoting good course design principles and we will do our best to help you with the answers.

We are looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your support.

Dee & John Houck

 

[Apothecary]

has he designed any courses in southern california?

 

[Jukeshoe]

Houck designed my home course. Did a pretty good job considering what he had to work with. Glad we've got this thread and I'm looking forward to the discussion that goes down.

 

[Cgkdisc]

When is John going to play a PDGA event so he can get a player rating?

 

[billnchristy]

John-

Which design element is worse in your eyes:

The "walking trail" fairway
-or-
The "we didn't remove ANY trees" random fairway

Would you consider a course that has a scoring spread of 12-16 strokes for an average player a course with too much luck factor to be considered a good course?

 

[HouckDesign]

has he designed any courses in southern california?

So far no courses in Southern California. But John was born there and he'd love to do one!

Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

What's you home course? We don't have any courses in Indiana.

 

[All GUNKed up]

tell john a bunch of my friends ( the pastor guy) were up at his place a couple of days ago and raved about how he designed the several courses that they played on .

 

[HouckDesign]

When is John going to play a PDGA event so he can get a player rating?

Hey Chuck! Been there. Done that. John sends you a BIG hug.
So do I. He says, " Maybe when I turn 60." Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

Thanks. Appreciate it. It was great to meet everybody. Dee

 

[fairweather_fan]

thank you both for taking the time to answer some of our questions! i've got a few off the top of my head to pose:

*do you have a preference for a certain mix of pars, if the land is available and fitting, such as 9 par 3s, 5 par 4s, and 4 par 5s (or some other combination)?

*how close, in general, do you believe to be 'too close' to have an O.B. area (water or otherwise) to a basket or green?

*what are a few courses by other designers that you hold in the highest regard?

thanks again...

 

[Three Putt]

What is John's view of a forced water carry in a public park setting. By water I'm not talking about a creek where you can reach down and pick up the disc, I'm talking deep or fast-moving water where a disc that does not make it over will be lost.

 

[Jukeshoe]

What's you home course? We don't have any courses in Indiana.

Creek Ridge in Michigan City, In.

Do you guys do signs for courses that have already been designed?

Our signs very clearly state that they were designed by Houck Design...:\

I took that to mean the course was designed by you, sorry if that is incorrect.

 

[jongoff09]

Great idea for a thread. I am looking forward to playing Cedar Glades in Hot Springs sometime. I wish he could do a course in or near my hometown (Cabot, AR). The city put in a small course for kids and said they would put a full course in later, but that hasn't happened. Maybe a designer like John would be able to get one put in around here.

 

[Marty McFly]

Tell John that I'm still mad about making hole 3 at Harry Myers 109304 feet long - (It's my favorite hole)

Actually if I only get to say one thing... Make it this: How can I grow a cool beard like John?

 

[sidewinding]

I can always tell it's a Houck designed course because on each and every hole there seems to be that one tree that is just in the right (wrong) place and forces a player to dig deeper. Even on holes with just one tree you always seem to design it with that tree in the perfect place. To me that is the genius in your design.

I have no question really. just an observation/compliment.

 

[DavidSauls]

How do you find fairways on heavily wooded, fairly featureless property?

I'm thinking, in this case, of the Jackson Course at IDGC, which may be the only Houck course I've played, and especially the rather level parts of it. How do you visualize an 800' hole when you can only see 80' through the woods? How do you take virtually a blank sheet and come up with a design?

I'm partly responsible for---some might say guilty of---designing one private course, where we could do it one hole at a time over several years and where there were all kinds of cool terrain features we could incorporate. Which is much, much easier. (And made easier by some of your articles I've read on course design).

 

[AdamE]

Is it bad to have holes that are par 3.5 or between par 3 and 4? Meaning only the the best of the best have a chance to deuce it, getting a 3 is nothing special and you feel like you screwed up when you card a 4? Thanks.

 

[WillACarpenter]

I'd like to ask John what he's got up his sleeve for the Rochester, NY area concerning the 2011 am worlds.



\/\/

 

[Cgkdisc]

Could also be Gentry and my sleeves depending on John's schedule...