David and John:
It is mosregretable that you post personal attacks in response to my post on this topic. I thought this board was above such responses. The purpose for my posts was to illustrate the problems with Tour players criticizing golf courses and tournaments.
These tournaments have unfortunately become important in the golf business. In a tough economy when great courses all over the country are struggling to maintain solvency, having a tour event can be a determining factor. As has been discussed on this board, it is a factor in the Golf Digest, Golf and Golfweek course rankings and can mean a great deal in new member and outing revenues. Further, the tournaments are critical to the communities that these courses are located as they raise millions of dollars for local charities. Many children's hospitals across the country are supported by tour events. So the membership or ownership feel a responsibility to the community. That is why I don't fault the courses.
However, I can fault the ungrateful players that are making millions of dollars at these events and don't care about the carnage created by their comments. When players make their comments publicly, they are hurting not just Rees Jones, but the owner of Cog Hill, the thousands of volunteers that don't care about golf and just want dollars going to their favorite local charities and the charities themselves. Phil can make his beliefs known privately with Finchem whenever he wants.
Listen - I agree with most of his comments. I just don't like the precedent of Tour players dictating golf architecture because, even though I agree with the direction they are going now, that might change and we may be headed to more boring architecture in the future because they find real gems too unfair.