Bruceski,
The difference in Adam's situation and Brian's is that in Adams, no one can hit a fairway (unfair IMHO) and in Brian's half the golfers (the fading half) can hit it easily, and the draw half cannot, w/o sacrificing distance by using an iron.
Is Brian's example "unfair?" I think not, providing using an iron does not preclude getting to the green in two, say on a 480 yard par 4.
Adams mention of "who says there even has to be grass" reminds that Old Tom took the heather out of the through the green areas about 150 years ago. He must have been getting some flak from locals that breaking their wrists hitting a good tee shot was somehow "not fair."
Blind shots like the Alps were once considered sporting, but now are considered by most as unfair.
The yardage book from St. Andrews makes the point that golf started in a time when warriors and potato famines wracked the country regularly, not to mention an infant mortality rate of about 50%, so couples had 10 kids to keep 5, etc. (Of course they needed the five to work the potato fields, and I know at least three kids (mine) who would say that is unfair
Under those circumstances, it would have probably been trival to complain about a blind shot! Furthermore, it would have reflected life as they knew it, whereas we can know the weather in an instant on the internet (providing we can get off this site
- Ran - why not add a golf weather section?) and so we somehow think we should be able to see the golf shot before we hit.
It's clear that gradual improvement in in club design, course design and maintenance technologies, combined with a more consistent economy have affected our opinion of "fairness" upwards! As I read Ross, MacK and Tillie's writings, they were concerned about it too, although less technically capable of producing it in design in their day. Thomas writes of a tournament on a course with a short par 3, where most competitors aimed at the pin, but three putted or couldn't hold the green, but the winner played to the safe side of the green and two putted! Sounds like today's tour pros who feel they have a "right" to shoot at any pin from anywhere!
Perhaps the USGA slope rating standard of 66% of golfers being able to hit a particular green or fairway is a good one, but individual golfers will never agree on fairness, as their opinion is naturally too heavily influenced by how a feature affects their own game.