Architect selection has been a bone of contention with many players, including the unnamed source who says, “I’m sorry, but it’s time to hire someone besides Jack [Nicklaus], Arnold [Palmer] or Pete Dye.” Nearly every TPC project has a “player-consultant” in the design credit, but those names are often selected for marketing purposes or simply because the consultant hails from the region where the course is being built. According to full-time architects who work on TPC projects, rarely is an interest in course design a prerequisite for a consulting gig.

Architects also find their hands tied by bizarre design guidelines derived from player surveys. The resulting template of standardized green, tee and fairway sizes leads to a sameness that limits an architect’s hand. Tom Weiskopf, who co-designed the TPC of Scottsdale with former partner Jay Morrish, was sufficiently irked by these guidelines to publicly declare he would never do another course with the tour (although he has since designed the TPC at Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas).

It’s TPCs like Weiskopf’s at Scottsdale (home to the FBR Open), along with the TPCs at Sawgrass and Connecticut’s River Highlands (Buick Championship), that continue to be praised for melding the needs of the field, the galleries, television and the bottom line. These more successful TPCs also prove fun to play for the average golfer and exciting for fans watching at home. Not surprisingly, their popularity begins with architectural integrity.

“They create that arena atmosphere,” says Weed, who did the tour’s redesign work at River Highlands and Sawgrass, and also co-designed three other TPCs. “All you have to do is attend one of those three events and you’ll know that’s about as exciting as it gets on the PGA Tour.”

Weed points to a common denominator that he says sets Sawgrass, Scottsdale and River Highlands apart: an absence of real estate development within their routings. “They’re all core courses. You have instant integrity on a core golf course that you don’t ever get once you start stretching it with road crossings or out-of-bounds on both sides of the hole.”

Within that core, the architectural details also elicit heroic play. “Scottsdale is cool because down the stretch they’ve got a reachable par-5, a driveable par-4 and a shorter par-3,” says architect and former tour player John Fought. “All those elements are exciting. Just as on the back nine at Augusta National, it’s exciting not simply because they’re all bruising holes, but because they require so much thought.”

River Highlands sports a watery, drama-filled finish highlighted by its driveable par-4 15th. Sawgrass’ short par-5 16th has probably impacted tournament outcomes as much as Dye’s famed island-green 17th. Combine well-balanced risk-reward elements with the massive crowds who envelope the action on these holes and the atmosphere becomes electric.

ABC golf producer Mark Loomis says the ideal TPC offers “finishing holes conducive to large galleries … [and sets up] the possibility of significant changes in the leaderboard.” He cites Sawgrass and River Highlands as perfect examples because “eagles are possible, as are bogeys and double-bogeys.”

Loomis loves River Highlands’ short 15th because “it’s a par-3.5 but driving it in the water is possible and it’s a hard up-and-in from the right if you bail out.” As for that infamous 17th at Sawgrass, Loomis says “it’s exciting to see the best players in the world sweat over a 9-iron. These holes give the viewer the feeling that no lead is safe.”

Looking to the future of TPCs, contemporary architects favor a return to classical design elements, which they say would enhance the experience for weekend golfers and tournament players alike. This means strategy, unpredictability, intimacy, sandy-soil sites and more holes that fall into par’s gray area.

“I think you can still build ‘half-par’ holes that elicit creative options,” Weed says. “Too many courses today are played specifically from the physical standpoint. Mental agility doesn’t come into play.”

Architect Brian Silva would like to see more holes that require players to “put the ball down on the ground during an approach shot. I’m just so entirely exhausted watching these players play darts, and darts with no thought or invention.”