Ask John Houck about Course Design & Development

[solomon.trenton]

Is having a raised pin thats above someones head (i.e. Hornets nest) too gimicky?

 

[HouckDesign]

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?

Thanks for your question. John will have to get back to you on this one! It may take a few days as he is swamped right now. But he will respond

 

[HouckDesign]

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 .

He read your email and we are glad that your friends enjoyed the ranch. Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

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...

John will have get back to you on this one in a few days. Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

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.

We do design & manufacture tee signs for courses not designed by us.

 

[cydisc]

Do you have anything hotter than wimpy serranos?

 

[HouckDesign]

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.

We would love to work at Cabot. If you know someone at the city whom we can contact, please email us. Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

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.

John says, "I appreciate it but make sure to thank the trees too. They are the ones that make you dig deeper." Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

Do you have anything hotter than wimpy serranos?

Steve, if you like heat, come back in August! next time it's habaneros! Hugs Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

Is having a raised pin thats above someones head (i.e. Hornets nest) too gimicky?

John says one man's gimmick is another mans innovation but he'll write more later. Dee

 

[HouckDesign]

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.

He says safety first and he'll get back to you with more details.

 

[HouckDesign]

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?

Stay single and don't shave. Dee
Thank you. I love hole 3 also. John

 

[HouckDesign]

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).

Thank you for the compliment about the articles. I'll write back a longer response later. John

 

[HouckDesign]

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



\/\/

I made an initial visit there last year and saw a lot of potential in the courses. It's really up to the local people what they do with the courses. I hope my suggestions were helpful and I always look forward to spending time in Western NY. John

 

[HouckDesign]

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.

John's written a couple of article about DUMB holes and he knows this is an important discussion. He'll write back to you when he has a little more time. Dee
Here is a link of the article.
http://www.houckdesign.com/dumbholes.html

 

[HouckDesign]

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

Chuck, you have to prove that you can eat 50 FIRE HOT chicken wings in under 3 minutes before they will let you land at the Buffalo airport. Either that or you have to be able to name every starting player from the Bills 4 superbowl teams. John

 

[Cgkdisc]

I'll make sure not to wear my Browns gear and bypass Buffalo to visit Rochester by car.

 

[cheddapig]

hey wouled you guys be interesed in designing a course in pottstown pa

 

[All GUNKed up]

lagrassa is on the pdga course designers group. he is a member here and lives near reading. give him a try.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Just for clarification, the DGCD course designers group of 135 members is independent from the PDGA. However, the PDGA relies on the DGCD to produce documents and standards which the PDGA usually adopts. Everyone on the PDGA Course Committee happens to be a DGCD member: Kennedy (Chair), Houck, Doyle, Gentry, Wallis, Monroe and Lyksett.