Question for you--how frequently do you come across a situation where the course that you'd want to build on a given site is wildly divergent from the course the developer wants to build?
In this situation, what usually is the source of conflict between your vision and their vision?
Sam:
You should never really take a job and THEN find out that you have a huge conflict with the client's vision. You should always be comfortable that your views are aligned before you sign up to do the job.
I've often shied away from work if I didn't think I was a good fit for what the client said they wanted. Most famously, the developer of Erin Hills asked me what I thought of building an 8,000-yard course that could host the U.S. Open ... I thought the latter was unrealistic, so I thought building something that long would be a waste of energy, and of course I didn't get the job. [And though the course is about to host the U.S. Open, Mr. Lang had to sell it at a huge loss several years ago, so maybe we were both part right and part wrong.]
However, I'm open to taking on such a job if I think it makes sense for that site and that market and that client.
The only two jobs where clients have specifically asked me for "hard" golf courses are Black Forest in Michigan, and Sebonack. Black Forest was my third solo design, and I was excited to build something difficult ... and ever since I have regretted it a bit, because the place has struggled, and maybe the difficulty has something to do with it. It was a beautiful site, and the course would have appealed to more people if I'd pushed back with the client a bit. At Sebonack, there was no pushing back, but I'm pleased that members enjoy the course as long as they don't play it from too far back.
In general, though, I'd prefer to build courses everyone can have fun on.