I hope I'm not misquoting Tom D but I think this was discussed when he showed a group of us round RC whilst in construction. He thought that he could build the world's best golf course in that land. But HCEG's position was that, since they already had the world's best golf course, why would they want another, and the inevitable traffic it would attract. A perfectly sensible position.
I probably did say all of that. Really, I don't know that it is any better of a piece of land than Pacific Dunes or Barnbougle or Tara Iti, but it's a great one.
As to the latter half, I was just speculating as to the HCEG's position. I've had the same discussion about Sand Hills - there are plenty more great holes to build out there, but what does it accomplish? If you do a great job, it just undermines the uniqueness of the first course, and if you don't do something just as good, what's the point?
Rumors around Gullane last week, though, were that the club has done a full study of the possibility, which no one apart from a small committee has been allowed to see. Sadly, they did not have me do a routing for it.