TePaul,
Ya know, I should recall more about my potty training, seeing as it was just six months ago........
Bada bing, bada boom.....
No latent hostility to golfers. Just an oddball sense of humor.
BTW, as Ian says, anyone who wants to know what the hell I ever thought about gca can easily find it....two series on Cybergolf.com, columns in Golf Industry and about 4K posts here on golf club atlas. Got to figure, if I can't explain it in all that writing, I just don't know!
In all seriousness, I undertook a lot of writing, including writing here under the fake name of "Jeff Brauer" to better understand myself. With all due respect, whenever I have talked to practitioners I do have a hard time getting it out of them just what they are thinking. A lot of gca happens because that's the way our mentors taught us, or after a while, "that's the way we've always done it" and sometimes, that's the way "X does it (did it). What is there for the critic to understand if the gca doesn't truly understand it himself?
What kills me is when some of our finest practitioners spit out whatever marketing drivel they feel they must, and after hearing it so many times, actually start believing themselves. To paraphrase Churchill, regarding self written golf architecture analysis "Never have so many words been wasted desribing so little thought."
And yes, perhaps I am a little guilty, too! Although, at the risk of breaking my own arm patting my own back, I have always tried to write about it (my own work) in simple, good humored terms, rather than in a semi religious tone......