To clarify my post, I'm not talking about hole locations or tee location type stuff. I'm talking about hand watering, rolling, etc. select greens or other parts of the course in the name of uniformity, and here's my underlying issue with it all:
It should be, in my opinion, that the players' ability to figure out the course, and subsequently, how to play it, is by solving the problem of what the course is, or isn't. The intellect of the player should be their 15th club, so to speak, if they are so blessed to think that way. I think the golfer should determine if a green will be faster or slower than the others because it sits in a hollow and doesn't get windblown, and vice versa. I think the golfer should be able to determine if the grain is speeding up, or slowing down their putt(not that grain really exists anymore). I think the golfer should know how to play a sand shot based on the dampness, dryness or texture of the sand....not because it is imported from Ohio to every tourney course so it always plays the same and is whiter than snow itself(thankfully, this isn't the case at Muirfield). I think that changes in weather between morning rounds and afternoon rounds are what they are and should be part of the golf challenge.
In the end, we keep hearing about what the human input is in an attempt to create fair, uniform, predictable conditions for all.
Joe