Ian, if your work is good (as I trust it is) it will speak volumes and the rater-chairman will take full credit for it 
. Good Luck.
Ron Farris,
The problem is that Ian's unadulterated work may not make it to the golf course due to the influence of a chairman, committee, board or President.
That's not to say that the architect is always right.
Certainly, if we've learned anything, it's that some classic courses designed by spectacular architects have been altered and disfigured over time.
Who is responsible ?
I believe the club shoulders the majority of the blame, but, the architect isn't immune from criticism and responsibility.
TEPaul doesn't want to blame anyone.
He feels that the same forces responsible for crop circles are the ones that disfigured all of these golf courses.
Brad Klein,
It's an imperfect world.
Rarely do all of the planets align at existing clubs such that a harmony exists between club members, club leadership, club staff and outside consultants, before, during and after a project.
I happen to adhere to Tom MacWood's theory of "don't touch it" but, for different reasons. While I have seen clubs improve holes or features, the great majority of the alterations have been to the detriment of the golf course. And, I"m not talking about lengthening, I'm talking about feature displacement, feature alteration, or feature additives that go against the grain of the architectural integrity of the design.
Ian has merely identified a subset of difficult green chairman.
You've identified several more.
In the ultimate, I suppose that you'd have to examine the green chairman's body of work in order to assess whether he's been an asset or a liabilty to the golf course, and/or an asset or liability to his club. Sometimes, the two aren't synonymous.
The problem I see at local clubs is that time has taken them further and further away from their architectural roots, and, that, combined with high membership turnover over the years have conspired to obscure the design integrity of the golf course, leaving it exposed to further alteration.
Once the first domino falls, there is no stopping the process.
And, while some will say that improvements CAN be made, and I don't doubt that, it depends upon what the alleged improvements are, who's suggesting them, and for what purpose.
That's a lot of moving parts from a lot of moving people and a dangerous path to follow.
Revolving green chairman tend to play the "I can top that" game in relationship to the previous green chairman's work.
That's why I prefered groomed dictators.
The golf course tends to stay better protected by their continuity of thought.