Working from the bottom up,
Thomas,
Yes, that is a good summary of my position. Unlike others, I don't think we should throw the opinions of tour pros out completely, even if I don't always agree with them either. They are nothing if not consistent, in my experience.
Melvyn, basically, the first funtion of a golf course as recreation requires it generally be close to golfers. TOC was certainly a neighborhood course, before it became an international destination, no? And, was it great land, or "leftover land" without real dramatic features?
As to engineering, things are more engineered over time, in all fields, as new technologies come into play. "over engineering" is an opinion, and opinions may differ. For instance, if you owned a golf course, and lost play for the first three years to soggy fw, would you want more drainage installed at first than you do as an "expert with no vested interest?"
Don,
You have pissed all over my recent posts. Not sure what put a bee in your bonnet, but I just reported what a few pros said. Don't want to name names on a private conversation. The initiation and comments were all theirs, not mine.Yes, some were in the design biz, others not. I didn't sense jealousy on their part, but just a well documented (at least to me) idea on what constitutes good design for their play. I did presume that many here would have a different opinion.
I have no doubt that Tom both tries and delivers great golf courses, and has had the most spectacular run of sites any architect ever had. To bring it back to the business side, he is obviously a great salesperson in the RTJ mode, and probably relies even more on great completed work and a unique design style in his sales. It speaks forit/ himself.
To bring it back to specific design side, they cited greens too hard to reward good tee to green play, fw too wide which encourage the bombers, and overly thought out and hard hazards in the LZ which really encourage them to just lay up, rather than encourage strategy with the driver. Regarding the analogy to Pete Dye, I think its apt. Remember that when designing the TPC, those greens were all softened at least once for the pros, many two or three times until they were satisfied with them. It will be interesting to see the reaction of pros playing a TD course repeatedly on tour. (For some reason, there is alwys less critiques of USGA courses)
All of those things are what set TD's design apart, and of course, all those ideas have been discussed here. Just another confirmation that pros think differently than this group as a rule, and that it is a big world out there. Hey, even the Beatles or Elvis didn't sell records to everyone.