Ian: maybe some architects should drink more, their work would be more exciting and less repetitive
no seriously, I'm not talking about having drinks at lunch time and try to get back on the dozer or work in the office in the afternoon, as Ian said, it's the best way to get nothing done.... and take an afternoon nap
I'm talking about end of afternoon, evening type of drinks, when your day is done, still have the project in your head and looking for a new creative solution... solving a routing issue, figuring out a bunker pattern on a hole where being stress out and sober didn't work... or simply talking with the crew about what to try the next morning...
me and my buddies just did a landscape design competition doing just that: in a bar Thursday at 8 pm, 2 or 3 pints, leave the bar at Midnight and go home, work on it over the weekend and talk about it the next thursday at 8pm over some drink... work out perfect.
I'm not saying to be an alcoholic will propel you to a career in golf design.
It's like those Walter Hagen stories, it's not because you're in a cocktail party at 1am with a drink in your hand that you're necessarily drunk, it could only be your second glass within the last 5 hours... but what people remember is that you were in a party at 1am with a drink in your hand and ... assumed you were drunk.
Doing that the night before a playoff in the US Open might sound crazy, but really was the other player sleeping at 1am the night before his playoff against Hagen.... no, so might as well do like him, have a little drink, talk to some nice ladies and relax a bit.