Jason,
How write you are!! I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments and Dan has parlayed my thoughts into words which I cannot improve on. See, there you are, writing talent is as rare as hens teeth nowadays!
In this day and age it would seem that time is of the essence. Writers are not given the time to craft a piece and the readers, in their frenetic world, believe they do not have the time to digest any such offering.
I asked, on a thread some months ago, who could be considered heir to the likes of Darwin, Dobereiner, Wind, Longhurst, Wodehouse and Updike. There was only one reply (by one of the Brits I think) and that answer was our venerable Ran himself. Ran does write well but not in the same vein as the icons above. I pose the question once more as I do not know the American writers but I fear the golf essayists time has come, as Dan suggests, and we will not see their likes again.
Cheers Colin