Everyone is misreading what Mark stated. For some reason you want to believe that he was stating that the player should be able to see everything from the tee.
He isn't.
“Golf is in large part a game of emotions and how we manage them.
Consciously or not, course designers create the stage for an
unfolding emotional drama that the game of golf entails.” Mark Parsinen.
This is a piece that he wrote before building Kingsbarns and which he adapted to Castle Stuart (you can visit their new website at
www.castlestuartgolf.com and also see his greens concept piece as well):
COURSE DESIGN GOALS
• The course should elicit anticipation and hopefulness in players of all skill levels; let it test one’s perceptual ability, judgment, decision-making, shot-making and emotional poise; let it not be difficult for the sake of being difficult, rather let it be interesting and engaging.
• Provide wide latitude for choice (wide fairways and play areas) but never let this lead to indifference (to line of play or length of shot); let asymmetry rule.
• Limit choice in some instances; but let the stern tests be ones to embrace, not to fear.
• As far as possible, keep the issues simple yet profound enough to engage and occupy the mind; let the issues be visual and dominating.
• Punctuate with blind issues, let mystery have a place.
• On the whole, let the player see the result of a good play; let him see his shot carry a hazard, his driver take a favorable contour, or his approach nestle close to a pin.
• Bring the sea into active shot-making frame as much as possible; let it be a real shot-making issue or visually unsettling when illusory.
• As far as possible, focus visual awareness on the course itself or on vistas of the sea and its surge against the rocky foreshore; minimize distance inland visual aspects; let the sea dominate.
• Use the topography to its fullest; let the play twist and turn, flowing over, around, through, into and atop the array of landforms.
• Provide dynamic holes, ones likely to yield a broad versus narrow distribution of scores; let short par fours, long par fours, and short par fives be a major aspect of the course.
• Let there be variety and seduction to the rhythm and flow of holes; let there be respites.
• Let the course and its implicit test show a true champion’s full set of skills.
from Perspectives on Course Design
His philosophy is that the player should see the CHOICES befor him when standing on the tee and that the choice made will be one of risk/reward with a number of surprises along the way.