Preamble: Now, more than ever, I know that the only way to keep the JK and me together, would be to stuff us into a golf cart, affix doors, and lock them. Did the influence of the Victoria National Fish Hatchery on the JK impact his opening diatribe? The later comment on "a culture" is an odd one to me. I heard it once before, at an elite club, being asked about "private club culture" in Buffalo. It reeks of either exclusivity, or inclusion, but not both. That's a shame, because there are many fence-sitters who wish to do our level best, to be many things to many people.
Corpus: I played Pasatiempo one time, in 2015. I walked Crystal Downs in 2019. I haven't been on Augusta National. I'm 54 years old, 5'9", 173 pounds, and use a push cart most days. I love to walk. I ride when I'm shooting a golf course and need multiple lenses and camera bodies, or in those rare circumstances when the terrain demands it. The most difficult course I found to walk and enjoy, also in 2015, was Chambers Bay. One playing/walking of a golf course is not enough to judge its greatness nor its perfection. Knowing that a course is a MacKenzie, bring to the course both expectation and baggage.
Deus Ex Machina: How many holes did I wish to have a chance to replay? All 18. Most of them burned their trace onto my golfing memory; I wanted to know how he routed that fairway, why he chose to leave those tall trees, who did the roofing on his house, what lives deep in the barranca, how many ways can you play the 10th, the 11th, damnit, every hole on the course! More than anything, I wanted to putt and putt and putt. Travis and MacKenzie are the greens-designers whose work I crave to see. I've had multiple opps to putt Travis greens, but precious few (one) to putt MacKenzie greens. If taken off to prison for using the words "great" and "perfect" to define Pasatiempo, I would stand with you and defend your application of those adjectives as just and appropriate.