Tom Doak: while I have a lot of respect for you and your work, I'd even go as far as to state you are my favorite living architect, I don't like the way in which you started your criticism of Fergal either. I wouldn't of appreciated it if it were me or anyone else for that matter. Whether or not that was your intention you start by diminishing his opinion and position by making fun of his name and the fact that you've never heard of him, so therefore he must not be anyone. (this is most certainly implied.) Even if he's just dead wrong and his opinion is way off, I just see that as unnecessary and inappropriate. I imagine that's not how it was intended but it is how it comes across.
David:
Thanks for your note. I did not intend to make fun of the man's name; I honestly didn't know if he was a real person or not. [We've had a few instances of that on this board.] I apologize for that. I also made the mistake of taking the nit-picky quotes in the original post as summarizing his general views of the courses he saw, when in fact that might just reflect what the original poster wanted us to think.
By the same token, it seems odd that we should all be expected to take his opinion as an expert without him ever having participated here, or with few of us even recognizing his name. I'm also not sure how I diminished his "position" when I am not sure what position he has.
I am always just a bit suspicious of the guys whose main credential is having had the money and the time to play every course on a top 100 list, as if that automatically makes one an expert on golf architecture. That's the sort of thing that could make you think that every course should be striving to be in the top 100 ... and be dismissive of so many fun courses that exist to provide fun golf for their members and visitors. [Again, I may be projecting unfair things onto that assessment because I don't know the man, so I'm mixing him in with some other people I do know.] Other than that, nothing Fergal wrote offended me, but I hope that the quotes used here were not indicative of his entire opinion ... i.e., that he had some appreciation for the several great holes at Woodlands instead of just dismissing it for not having more of them.