Two friends with whom I worked a bit in Houston, Robert von Hagge and Joe Finger, represented, respectively, the gca as "artist" and as "engineer." With his background in graphic design, performing in movies as a stunt man, and his colorful personal appearance -- the stylish hairdo, the occasional cape, and the ubiquitous open shirt and ascot -- von Hagge naturally described his courses in terms of the artistic elements of shape, movement, variety, colors, and rhythms, even when speaking of the various grasses blown by the winds and the patterns of sunlight and shadows on his hole designs. A graduate engineer from Rice Institute, Finger was very concerned with, and spoke most often about, issues of water movement (drainage) throughout the course, proper bolstering of greensides adjacent to water hazards, bunkers construction, and especially greens and the relevance of USGA recommendations about soil compositions.
Still, these personal narratives, however relevant in the minds of critics and the designers themselves, rarely led to courses that were strictly artistic but devoid of engineering competence, or merely mechanical forms without beauty. The best creative work, in whatever area of art, is characterized by appealing as well as workable, functional forms.