The Seinfeld Quote is actually "NOT that there is anything wrong with that" or "Well, good luck with all of that."
You know, last night I was ready to remove my post on this subject because I felt it was "TOO" out there. Then my computer locked-up and I simply shut it off and went to bed.
Let me take this to another direction. Personally, I have experienced soul on a lot of golf courses that didn't have an ounce of architectural merit--maybe even a little too much glitz for their own good. For example, my experience on one of the worse times in my life that led me to Spanish Bay, and ended up turning to be a life-changing experience. I mean, I was really "F"-up in the head that day, but golf at Spanish Bay or maybe just golf in general, was my ticket out of this mass of negativity and insecurity. As some of us know, it is that paticular dramatic setting for such a life-changing event on a golf course that could have architecturally, been so much better.
But since then, I've had so many other soulful experiences on great courses--architecturally and even unarchitecturally. Standing on the first tee at Pacific Dunes watching the first group of Tom Doak, Bill Coore, Brad Klein and Jim Urbina tee-off in its pre-opening state was a soulful experience for me. I think that it may be one of the more pivital moments in modern golf architecture because it was there, that some of the most commercial minds in the business, got to see exactly what GREATNESS actually is, and how minimally it can be acheived with the right mindset, or....Heaven forbid.....The right soul.
Or it could be the assorted few that got to experience Rustic Canyon it the most perfect of conditions--all to ourselves, with the guys that built-it.
If these weren't soulful events, then there is no such thing as a soul.
Here are two vastly different golf courses in two completely different areas, and I can see the different characteristics of soul in each one of them. Talk about VARIETY!
Rich,
ex·is·ten·tial·ism--
A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.
What then, is a person that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as a gift and stresses that our freedom of choice should be made with the integrity and a moral standard, with responsibility of the consequences of one's acts?