From Ran's Cape Kidnappers course profile - Of course, given that the scenery steals the show at Cape Kidnappers, many people never focus on the architecture itself.
I was lucky enough to visit recently and there were numerous occasions when I was indeed distracted from by task of getting the ball in the hole. Could one argue then, that this type of course - lets call it spectacular golf - is less of a pure golfing experience than, say a pure links where one is aware of the ocean, but where one rarely actually sees it?
Having played Barnbougle Dunes the next week, I would argue that the latter is indeed a more distilled golfing experience. But having thought about it, I still agree with the consensus, that CK is the finer course. I'd go further and argue that Doak's work there, had it not been of the very highest calibre would have failed, as the paying customers would only be there for the views, like Old Head (or so I hear).
Which is why I go one step further and argue that Cape Kidnappers may be the greatest design (I've seen) - to have integrated eighteen holes into this landscape so elegantly, without it ever feeling hackneyed or cliched, is a huge achievement.