the art & craft of gca has improved over the decades, i.e. practitioners have learned from the past, both in 'technical' and 'creative' ways -- and certainly have learned what seems to work best (and what didn't sometimes work) in golden age designs.
Now, neither you nor Ian would probably even think this, let alone say it: but isn't it very possible that you both "know better" than those who came before, even if those who came before where the golden age greats?
Yes: I can fully appreciated wanting to/aiming to bring back a great classic design to its 'truest' form. But isn't another defensible goal that of trying to make that design 'better'?
P
Peter:
I understand your argument. It's a bit different, but not unlike the argument that athletes keep getting fitter over time, so that today's bench players might have beaten the all stars of Babe Ruth's day.
The people most likely to agree with that analysis are the bench players. But the people least likely to agree with it are today's best players, who recognize that there is something more than physical skill at play. There's also just natural aptitude for the sport, and the desire that drives some to put in more effort to be the best at what they do.
Statisticians argue that the results of a baseball player's at bats are random and there is no such thing as clutch hitting, but as Reggie Jackson pointed out, nobody said that about Jack Nicklaus.
So, back to your argument. There is a group of golf course architects [really almost a
generation of them] who think the profession is all about technical proficiency and getting the drainage right -- that it's mostly engineering rather than art. Are those the guys you really want to have tinkering around with the best work of past designers who had a different view of things?
Again, as with my earlier analogy, the more accomplished an architect in modern times, generally, the more respect is shown to the great courses of the past. Of course they are also the ones who don't need to feed their family by renovating a golf course next year, or to attach their name to a great course to boost their self-promotion; and maybe it's as simple as that, but I don't think so. I think there are just a lot of guys who don't put much value in the magic of a great design, because they don't know anything about magic.