I'm someone who plays and enjoys Dubs about three or four times per year, so take this with a grain of salt. My problem with Phil's (and others) comments is that in the end, they don't do anything constructive, and the brunt of the negative impact will go towards Cog Hill and the Jemseks. As was pointed out above, they're collateral damage in Phil's personal war with Rees Jones, and Phil either doesn't know this (in which case he needs to think harder), or he does know this (in which case, he's being a real ass). The Jemseks are left with a course that will now probably lose some prestige. In addition to that, we've just had a week of television coverage filled with professional golfers basically telling the general public "Don't come play this place, because it's too hard for you average hacks". I'm not in marketing, but something tells me that's not great for business. While I'm disappointed with Stricker's comments, I assume he was speaking off the cuff, responding to a reporter's question. Phil's attack seemed much more calculated, whatever the motivation.
Unfortunately for Cog Hill and the Jemseks, the USGA is changing. Probably for the better overall, but not necessarily for Cog. The re-do would have been great 15 years ago, when the USGA was looking to add public courses to the rotation, but still liked going to very difficult layouts, and as a result added courses like Torrey and Bethpage.
Cog Hill now stands, like Commiskey Park, as the second major sports venue in town that was re-done for the wrong era. Commiskey was the last new stadium built before Camden Yards, and from what I recall, Reinsdorf nixed a retro-style stadium for something more modern, and the facility has been criticized ever since. History repeats, I guess.