"When the implements improve dramatically, the architecture does fail, or at least change for many (my italics)"
Jeff -
not to belabour this point too much longer, but what I have italicized seems to me the key point and difference between us.
A year ago Tom D started a thread asking what yardage/tees most of us play most of our golf from. If memory serves, the majority of us (maybe even the overwhelming majority) answered "about 6,500 yards".
Without getting into a numbers/historical argument, I think we can agree that there are hundreds and thousands of courses across America that are -- and have been for decades and decades -- 6,500 yards long, give or take.
That means that for most of us here (and only a fraction of us are using old equipment/persimmon), the great architecture past (and present) has not failed, and is in no danger of failing any time soon.
Yes, technology has developed much too quickly (for my tastes), and yes, some golfers hit the ball farther today than the golden age architects could've imagined, and yes, the tour pros can shoot remarkably low scores on just about any golf course in the world.
But my point is that all the harping for the last decade (from and amongst us purists) about the technology and about how far the ball goes and about the low scores being shot by tour pros has not done one bit of good -- either in helping to protect older golf courses from committee members eager to lengthen them or in lessening the pressure put on architects today by the developers to build 7500 yard courses.
Instead, the harping seems only to have confirmed in the minds of the golfing collective the notion that technology is making existing courses obsolete -- and that the distance the ball flies (for some) and the low scores that some can shoot is making the architecture irrelevant.
And so, since that harping approach does not seem to have worked, I've been suggesting that we try instead to do our part to help the golfing collective embrace a different notion of architectural relevancy -- one that keeps the focus not on the technology or the distance the ball flies but instead puts the focus on the vast majority of us who, still today, need no more than 6,500 yards to keep us happy and engaged.
Peter