Bogey,
As soon as there was a "second" architect, the first architect had to be outdone! Especially once we started "rankings"!
Lester
The pastor at the church we attended yesterday spoke on humility (Mark 10:35-45), spending much of his time on the related sins of pride, ego, selfishness, self-centeredness. To illustrate, he told a story of a group of teenagers he was leading on a mission trip to Mexico and how he pleaded with them repeatedly about the need to be at the bus by 6:30 a.m. for a prompt 7:00 departure. Of course, four kids showed up at 7:15, and adding insult to injury, each was toting a McDonalds sack. These kids being late and putting themselves above all others was one of several examples used as counterpoints to the Lord's simple act of humility- washing the feet of his disciples.
What does this all have to do with the subject? Has Duran gone Tebow on the site?
I suggest that even without the rankings, by the inescapable requirements of their very nature, architects would seek to differentiate and surpass the work of their colleagues (and competitors). Unlike the pastor as well as any number of believers in the various forms of collectivism, I think that Original Sin and selfishness, greed, property, possessiveness, etc. are confused with the survival instinct wired into all of us, and without which progress and advancement are impossible.
To answer Bogey, golf and its architecture have evolved as they have because golfers place value in the various forms and the industry, sometimes responding, at other times leading, has evolved to meet their needs. The pictorial examples provided are of two very different physical environments. They perhaps represent very distinct expressions even within their specific environs. There are several more (parkland, desert, prairie) that should reflect different styles and presentations.
Bogey’s comment on the “golf is a big world” theory reminds me of the Tennessean who when asked which type of music he enjoys, responded that he likes both kinds, country and western. Not living on a sand belt along an ocean, I have to make do with the evolved form of gca on inferior sites and be thankful.
By the way, the aforementioned pastor spoke for an hour combined, and though he acknowledged that the service was running late into the times for other planned activities, I doubt that he ever made any connection to his previous admonitions and offered no apologies. Even those who are very sensitive to the downsides of our human nature are not immune to it. And, I suspect, like those of us who like to uphold our preferences above those of others, probably have more comfortable ways of rationalizing and justifying them.