I was not suggesting that Tom Doak is a "tweaker" -- but from what he's said, about this routing and elsewhere, he's a confirmed self-tweaker.
It's not often you'll find someone who can edit his own word, but he might be that rara avis.
Dan:
I think you had it right in your previous post. I've always compared it to whittling away at things, but what am really doing in the routing, and throughout the construction process, is editing the land itself. Usually, that's what God did, and that's why I am at my best on great land as opposed to courses that have to be created from thin air. But I'm known to be a pretty good editor of my associates' contributions as well.
I am very good at editing my own words [given a bit of time to let the thoughts gel] -- I got that from my mom, I think. I am pretty bad at editing other people's words, it just drives me crazy that they don't think the same way I do. I've had to work at getting my associates to make suggestions on routings. At critical points, their help can be very valuable in getting my thinking out of a rut, but most of them have faith that I'll figure it all out and they are afraid of getting in the way. I don't think I've ever gone ballistic on them like Steve Jobs, but I've been known to dismiss others' ideas pretty quickly -- usually because I explored the same idea already, and figured out the place two holes later where they run into a dead end. I'm not so good at explaining myself and avoiding hurting someone's feelings over that kind of stuff, even though I'm better than I used to be.