In a related vein, I was having a discussion with several golfers recently about Old Tabby Links, the Palmer-Seay design in Beaufort, SC. To me, that little gem of a lowcountry course is a perfect example of a relatively new golf course that looks like it's been there for 100 years. It has the look and feel of a course that was built at a time when course builders didn't have the type of equipment to move a lot of dirt and create elevations and exaggerated mounding. It seems that Ed Seay just cut down trees, dredged a few ponds and laid out the course in a way that just accepted the land as it had been for centuries. It's a simple, straightforward and beguiling golf course that looks anything but modern. In that way, it is the polar opposite of the nearby Long Cove Club, one of Dye's masterpieces of modern golf course architecture.
This thread also reminded me of my recent round at Calusa Pines, in Naples, Florida. Calusa is a dramatic and bold modern design by Hurdzan/Fry, with a lot of elevation changes in a dead-flat area of the country. The construction work was extremely skillful, as was the shaping of the course itself, because the overall experience is to be tricked into believing that the course is entirely natural. You can be lulled into believing that the architect just went with the lay of the land, when they actually blew up the land with dynamite, created ponds and hills and valleys. They achieved the natural look in a most unnatural way.
I'm sure there are countless examples of architects doing similar work, but I'm personally very impressed with each of these courses, despite the very different ways that they were built.