Tony:
I think a distinction needs to be made when the statement "good course conditioning" is used.
Some people think of good course conditioning to mean the course looks pretty, green, spiffy, whatever (Mike Rewinski did use some of those terms above about Shinnecock). Sometimes this has little to do with heightening and exentuating the essential design elements of the golf course and all its little design nuances and subtleties.
But sometimes good conditioning does mean that all the various design elements are tuned up, uncovered and dusted off to make the course and its design really SHINE and play awesome-as good as it can play! I call this the perfect "maintenance meld"-the ideal "design/maintenance" combination!
I think this is what Mike Rewinski is talking about with Shinnecock and what Michuad has done to Shinnecock. But I'm not real sure. In the past MikeR has taken exception to green speeds getting nutty-and he did mention that above, so maybe he should clarify whether he thinks Michuad has gone too far with the course championship condition-wise in a day to day membership context in the interest of driving the course to the #1 spot.
A course like Shinnecock can be tuned up to Championship conditions when the championship comes to Shinnecock but is this what the members really want and enjoy? This would be really interesting to know and why I asked MikeR the question I did above.
I can tell you last summer when I drove through Shinnecock early one beautiful warm sunny morning the course had that Championship "SHEEN" to all of it! It looked like it was ready right then to test the hell out of Tiger & Co.
If a superintendent can get a golf course like Shinnecock into really good condition all the time-into championship condition all the time, I'm fascinated by that, because it can't be easy. But I'm also fascinated to know if a general membership really enjoys playing championship conditions day in and day out.