Forrest: "what are the relationships you feel most precious in golf architecture relative to land?"
This requires two answers:
1. Pre construction: I don't know until I get to the property and study it thoroughly. I look for chances to provide variety, flow, beauty and opportunity to create something unique...along with an emphasis on the short shots (it's all we had at one course I grew up playing)...cliches I know, but backed up by those I've worked for, and the manner I've chosen to work.
2.Construction: The most precious relationship is being there...on the land...with the workers...comminucating the vision daily...interpreting the plans I've personally drawn. It's a combination of planning and Ross' advice "Design on land, not on paper." To steal a line from Pete Dye which I believe in fully, "Plans are the starting point", not the end.
As for the general framework: I'll say that my goals have been to try and provide a golf course I would have enjoyed playing as an eager junior golfer. It doesn't have to be as tough as nails, but I attempt to hit on those elements in Part 1 above...a course which will examine all aspects of a golfer's game so if someone wants to become a complete golfer...they can. If the course isn't too busy they can take a handful of balls and a few clubs a'la John Ball and hit fun shots. I know I was partially handicapped by the courses I grew up playing...I don't want to handicap anyone if I can help it, including and especially the investor.
RJ basically summed up the procedure I use early on. Grab a plastic covered topo/base map, section it in quandrants and do the same with an aerial if available at the time. In my pack-sack I've got cameras, laser, permanent markers, a dictaphone, water and some grub. I walk, walk, walk...making notes on the maps (sketching and scribbling ideas on the back) of features, and ideas, while spitting a constant diatribe of what I see and anything which comes to mind on the dictaphone...it's a constant conversation.
The topography may suggest ideas, the soils, the vegetation, the wind, the property adjacent. I'll sit at points for a long while and just look around...as I'm limited in the way I work, there is no rush to get it done with a power-walk and move on somewhere else. From there I take all the info and start grinding out potential routings, potential themes...perhaps it's something that hit me square between the eyes, or something more subtle which revealed itself over time. Once the routing is solid (and permitted) other design ideas often occur when the machines are on site, and as I'm there daily...I can grasp onto every opportunity which presents itself and implement it as construction progresses...not after it has been built according to plan...which may mean the opportunity has been long erased, or implementing it may mean two holes will either look similar, play similar and therefore the idea may not be usable because the other holes may be too far along to alter.
Time on-site before, during and after construction, communcation with authorities, the developer and the constructors...observation and monitoring during construction are what I find to be the critical elements relative to the land, to the project, to the future members and or guests, and the investor.
The asset of time.