Wade,
I think your question about the architect picking the BEST holes is really the thing that works for me.
In the case of Kinloch, I chose the 18th hole purely on merit. Once it was decided to be a private club with caddies, it made the decision even easier. We then came up with the shuttle idea which works very well for us. The 19th was not an afterthought or a fill-in. I convinced them to build the 19th on its merit alone and Vinny Giles (one of the great match players of all time) liked the idea from the beginning and we decided to do it. Anyway, in my mind, the 18th was always short of the clubhouse for other reasons, but, having the 19th AND caddies AND the shuttle all help what some may say was a less than ideal finish.
By the way, we did an exercise here at George Golf Design one time to have 18 return to the house by re-routing and reconfiguring the dam. It may have been two years after we opened. We did it because ONE member said it was the imperative that we change our finish. Long story short, once we found a way to do it, the rest of the membership in essence said they would rather lose that member than change what they believed was one of the unique, most talked about finishes in golf. CASE CLOSED. Good thread.
Lester