Dan and Ed, your posts are what I was hoping to see. And, I certainly agree that there are a number of GC architects out there with great talent, perhaps equal to Tom's.
But, one thing I am getting at is the mounting evidence in terms of the stream of continuing brilliant work that Renaissance is putting out is that I think there is a consensus forming (even through mere pictures and words) that there is a new top architect.
Then, when you consider how many outstanding sites may still be left for other highly talanted architects to get a crack at, and the velocity that I believe Doak is gaining in world wide reputation for him to get first serious consideration for those limitted sites, I just think Doak has risen to a sort of lead figure - dominant force in the field. That makes him the King in my view.
As Tom mentions, they still look at their efforts as building one great course at a time to be evaluated on their own individual merits. And, they look at other architects efforts as one at a time as well. But, for every rare one great site that many of the other talented archies are getting a crack at, Tom's reputation ( IMO ) is garnering a stream of multiple opportunities. With scarcity of opportunity sites, and his momentum, I think that makes Renaissance the dominant quality producer. Not THE "one and only" quality producer, but the category leader.
It seems that probably Fazio, or JN are still the go-to guys for the big commercial projects that need marketing of things beyond the golf course. They may be kings of the big multiple-use and ammenity laden products to be marketted. But, those developers and consumers I look to as being the golf architecture conoscenti, seem to know that Doak is now the real go-to guy for the high quality golf design work at this juncture, and in the forseeable future.
I think that has all sorts of implications in the industry and the future of the art/craft arena of golf course architecture.