What makes a great routing?

[guesst]

It occurs to me, in reading this, that the routings I like are the ones I notice the least . . . the places where I walk off the course and talk about everything else, thinking about the routing in an "Aha!" moment after other topics are exhausted.  

Conversely, the routings I like least are the ones where I notice the route while playing . . . whether the trek from green to tee is long, I have to consult the map to find the next, or the "back and forth" corridors are just too consistently boring and overshadow other elements.  

[TEPaul]

Darva D:

I like that thought of yours about a good routing---it reminds me of Olmsted's theory that the finest landscape settings should evoke quiet contemplation, not necessarily audible comment!  

[guesst]

Not that I get a lot of time for quite contemplation of a golf course when Armenian is in tow . . .  But no one else I've been to a course with is nearly as interested in bunker design or fairway contours, so it's a trade off I've been happy to make. It's not complete puke . . .  

Actually, the course that came most to mind when I made the discovery that the best routings are those that go unnoticed was Cascata.  I found the back and forth, mountain view, valley view, mountain view, valley view, to be too much, even while enjoying those views.  So that when I got to an intimate hole without those views, it was a refreshing change.  

Just the sort of thing I'd rather not notice.  

Not that I'm really complaining or saying I have a better idea.  How on earth one routes a course on top of a mountain at all is beyond my ken.  I would probably be better off keeping those musings to myself.  

Of course I rarely choose the route which would be in my best interest . . .