Who is the best architect in golf travel? It's hardly an easy choice

The best golf course designer worth traveling for? That’s a question with about two or three dozen possible answers.

To see who Mike Bailey and I picked and why, click here here for the Travel Punch Shots article on Golf Channel.

It had to be a name from the modern era, so no Ross, MacDonald, Mackenzie, Braid, etc. In the end, my pick was hardly a decisive one (you’ll have to visit the article to find out, but the above photo is one of his designs – in Myrtle Beach).

The topic comes with some interpretation. I ended up viewing the question as such:

If you were traveling to a golf destination and had to blindly choose a golf course based on the architect’s name alone, who would you pick?

I thought about guys like Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (in the end, too many of their must-plays are private) or Pete Dye (in the end, too many of his plays are too tough!).

Other architects, like Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Jack Nicklaus simply have so many golf courses, their full body of work is a little diluted. On the flip side, some architects like Jim Engh or Mike Devries just don’t have enough quite yet, and will probably never design as many courses as they deserve.

But the question beckons to you golf travelers, which architect’s name do you look for when you’re on the road with your golf clubs? Are there any unsung heroes in your opinion?

Or, does the name even matter? Just keep the greens smooth and the beer cart girl chipper.