... but in any case I do think Doak is suppressing a veri on that hole that I have yet to find. And to me that's a good thing.
Tom and Rich,
Now we're getting somewhere! Namely the ancient Roman Catholic concept of enigmate: "through a glass darkly."
I very much like this idea that a hole contains an essential truth, but the architect must mask it so as to make the hole more interesting.
The "truth" in question here is just the "best" way to play a hole. The fun lies in trying to figure out what that is, so Simpson's belief in deception is well placed.
And suggestio falsi therefore may, more often than not, be a "low" form of obfuscation, whereas suppressio veri demands the golfer fall back on the "faith" of his experience, because his eyes are not as easily deceived by falsi as veri. He must tell himself his eyes deceive him, and let go of the visual impression.
And if the hole plays differently depending on conditions, then the weather itself provides suppressio veri, too!
Leading one to the conclusion that the best holes may not have one "truth," i.e., one and only one way to play, and that suppressio veri might in fact be a dominant strategy.
Blah blah blah...put simply, minimalism, when used to suppress the truth -- i.e., not minimalism for its own sake (sui generis!) -- is a high-form of design.
Mark