Mark - I think its easy for anyone to discover a hole on a great site but getting the right mix of holes, sacrificing something to make a better sequence is the skill to getting a good routing on the better canvas sites, taking time, trial and error and just walking just like they did 150 years ago. Getting a best out of any piece of land is the best you can do, that might be a course on 85 acres or creating something that will really look something in 30-40 years. A lot of mine are from perfectly flat fields but by using a inert landfill you get some modelling clay to add some contouring, some might call it fake, others might not notice, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and if I did not tell you you might not know that xxx course was a landfill site for 5 years...its the end result but you will never beat great sites and that coastline at PB... whats it worth?
You might be right about a bumper amount of redesign work one day if H & S issues start to pinch. Many years ago Fred Hawtree rang me and asked me to look at Worlebury GC, the club had problems with a road and the insurance company were no longer prepared to insure them. Fred had given them advice and the club were not over happy and I think Fred was fed up basically so said to the cub.. go get someone else (politey). My advice was pretty much the same as Fred's, there was no nice compromise unfortunately. Insurance headaches will end up closing down holes, a ruling by a judge that 100 yards between fairways is required for safety could be disaster, but they are very real modern scenarios in this age of accident claim. The real headache is when the insurance company wont cover you. Whilst this might give archies a job it wont be a nice job, rehashing golf courses to new H & S guidelines.