Even most courses with good wells need one lake of 3-5 acre size to store the irrigation water. If you were designing a links course, then you could put it off the course somewhere, or on other styles, certainly one pond is not too many for most of us.
No one has mentioned drainage, but the reason so many florida courses have so much water is that they need drainage outlets and fill to raise fairways. Since water flows downhill, on flat ground you need to provide a short run to a pond, plus raise the fw. Ponds accomplish that.
Sometimes, ponds are required for flood detention as part of the development (doubling as a premium lot amenity) and/or environmentall filter.
So, to answer Pat's question, which is a nice conversation starter, they are sometimes a site required necessity. Calling them a crutch ignores the basic reality of modern design and isn't really fair. I am sure that virtually every pond you see on a golf course fits one of those descriptions. At least, in my work, I rarely recall adding more than the irrigation/fill source/drainage outlet/detention/filter ponds than is absolutely necessary, and I am pretty sure other gca are mostly the same way.
In fact, I recall Old Tom Morris wrote the same thing in his memoirs......
