"...You hit it directly on the head.
Some people are incapable of appreciating embellishments to function that elevate the simply utilitarian to high artistic achievement."
Gib,
That is a load of crock. Some people are incapable of thinking the same way you do. So that makes us incapable of appreciating embellishments that elevate utilitarian to artistic achievement? Jeezus Christmas, you actually believe that nonsense?
MacKenzie made the conscious decision to add artificial mounds and bunkers to many of his courses. Why? This is the architect that everyone positions as Mr. Natural. What is it that makes these additions to the natural landscape an improvement? It disconnects the architecture and is entirely unnatural looking. You look at it as an artistic achievement. I look at it as unnecessary and unappealing. But I'm incapable of appreciating it? Maybe you should consider a different point of view as reasonable. I don't criticize you for any inability but rather a different sensibility. For whatever reason you are incapable of that consideration. Shame on you.
The mistake I speak of is the overwhelming of the naturalism with the man-made. Please don't kid yourself into thinking his greenside mounds and bunkers are natural looking. They are almost as unnatural as Raynor green sites.
"If given the choice, are we to select one of those horrible Russian LADA's to drive, or something with flair and panache'?"
Completely irrelevant.
"Anybody can design something plain and humorless. Cypress Point sits adjacent to God's best work, to construct something less than beautiful there would be an insult to the deity."
God's best work? That is your opinion. Plenty of others might see better work at Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Himalayas, the Andes, Lake Como and elsewhere. Cypress Point may mean the world to you, but if you cannot recognize others may feel differently, then you are sadly disillusioned.
There is plenty of beauty at Cypress Point. Unfortunately for me, it is not enhanced by the work of MacKenzie on the 15th hole. He went overboard. That is my opinion. It is not the universal truth. It is my truth. You do not have enough consideration to allow me my thoughts. MacKenzie was not infallible and he proves it around many a green.