As a thought experiment, think of golfers as facing two basic kinds of penalties.
The first are penalties that arise from bad mishits. I shank my PW approach, no telling what touble I will find. More importantly, there is a universal sense that a mishit of that magnitude richly deserves whatever penalties it gets.
The second are penalties that arise from minor mishits or even well struck shots. There is a sense (in the US at least) that it is an "unfair" result if I push my drive 5 yards off line that (a) it is lost, (b) I must chip backwards out of a bunker, (c) I have a blind approach to the green, (d) my ball comes to rest in a hazard I could not see from the tee, (e) my ball rolls down a rock cliff to the wine dark sea, (f) my ball kicks sideways from the fairway into gorse (and I slice my hand into a bloody stump trying to recover it), or (g) etc.
That sense of unfairness comes, I think, from a belief that a round can be ruined by reason of only a slight mishit. That the punishment does not fit the crime. You would only come to that conclusion, however, if you measure your round by a final medal score.
Making certain that the punishment does fit the crime is a distinguishing feature of golf course architecture today in the US. (BTW, I don't think many of the Golden Agers bought into the concept. I talking about US gca in the Age of Fazio.)
It is not a distinguishing feature of courses in Scotland. Slight mishits are frequently severely punished and, I assume, they ruin medal rounds even in Scotland. It is a sign of the cultural superiority of the Scots that they don't seem to care as much as us colonists.
Specific holes. The Pit at N. Berwick. I played with a guy last week who, after a superb drive and a well-struck second shot, watched his ball hit the top of the wall and bound into the North Atlantic beyond the dune left of the green. His provisional landed just short of the wall, requiring him to chip backwards. This guy had a great round going and takes an 9 on a short par 4 where he really didn't mishit anything. I am aware that such results can happen anywhere, anytime, but I have little doubt that holes like The Pit make it happen a lot more frequently than at, say, Medinah.
I could go on with holes in Scotland. The green at the 16th at N.Berwick, the blind shots at 15 and 16 at Cruden Bay. The Himalaya and Alps holes at Prestwick. The funky bounces balls take on virtually every fairway at R. Dornoch.
These are the kinds of holes that for me are no fun to play if you are serious about posting a medal score. They don't have bail-outs, they involve pure luck, they will break your heart (or at least my shallow American heart).
But they are absolutely wonderful match play holes. Unsurpassed. I loved each and every one. They would make a match more fun and interesting, certainly more fun and interesting than the same match played on a "fair" Fazio course.
When I was in Scotland last week I wondered often why the quirks you see in great links courses have not travelled well to the US. I think it has to do with the American medal mindset. I don't pretend to understand the Scottish mindset, but they clearly aren't as bothered as we are by a snowman now and again. Or at least they don't take it as a basis for indicting the golf course architecture.
Bob