Ask Tom if he believes that.
And while yo're at it, ask him how many courses he's built. Compare it to the rest of us.
George:
I'm not bothered by anything.
I am interested in having an informed discussion about Jason's central question (a very good one): How do you decide one course is better than another?
Jason admitted up front his views are colored by his overall experience -- note his bias toward playing a course that, by consensus, doesn't rate among the top 10 in Minnesota by our distinguished panelists.
I'm struck by how several responses are colored by that person's own experience
playing a course.
Doak wasn't DOAK when he took off to the U.K. and Ireland to study courses over there. By his own admission, he didn't play all of the courses he evaluated and saw, and he even gave Doak ratings to courses he didn't play. I've never been terribly bothered by that -- he's a pretty astute observer of these things. But he had to start somewhere, and I'm guessing his trip overseas -- although perhaps not the first place he began to get ideas about what he liked and didn't in a golf course -- provided a pretty good foundation. I think he's been quoted as saying that every idea in golf architecture is a copy of -- or direct reaction to -- the architecture at The Old Course, and I'm guessing that round after round of
caddying -- not playing (although playing helped, I'm sure) -- at TOC informed that view. (If I'm wrong about that quote -- I take everything back.
)
I've learned less about some courses that I've played a lot than some I've walked a few times. When I'm walking a course, I'm almost always looking for architectural elements to consider and study. When I play a course, I'm mainly chasing my wayward shots.
Roger Ebert used to be confused about directors and other movie moguls who didn't like his reviews. How could he know what went into making a movie? He was merely some guy in the back row of a theatre...
Let's do a little test. Doak gets invited to the full 18 opening this year at the new Mammoth Dunes course here in Wisconsin. Instead of playing the course, he decides to walk it a couple times. Think he'll have any ideas about the course as a piece of architecture, before playing it? I do.
But I don't think his superior ability to do that -- compared to, say, your average GCA poster -- prevents the rest of us from making valid observations by doing the same.