"Pat,
It almost sounds like TEPaul with his "big world" theory."
It probably is the same thing. I probably did get that from Coore. If I've had a mentor in this stuff, in retropect it'd have to be him. But there've been others. It all started with Geoff Shackelford and went on to Coore, Hanse, others like Rodney Hines, Jim Wagner, Ron Forse, Jim Nagel, Ron Prichard, Kye Goalby, James Duncan, Ken Bakst and even some like Jeff Bradley a little bit. Certainly one picks up things from the architects on here too--Tom Doak's contributions have been one of the best things this website has--and the other architects who've come on here.
Many of them seem to share a trait--they seem to be sort of free-thinkers about architecture. The best of them to me seem to exhibit an attitude that you should always remember to "know what you don't know"--or that there're always things to discover in golf and golf architecture. The importance of the vast "differences" in golf architecture could be one of those things--matter of fact, it just could be the essence of it all.
Not to say that any of those people actually like all of that vast difference in architecture just that they may appreciate better than most that it's probably necessary.
Similarity of any kind can tend to be limiting and ultimately stultifying. It doesn't matter if that similarity is ''minimalism", "maximalism", the highly and evidently man-made or extreme naturalism.
In the end difference is good, in my opinion--it's variety, it's dynamic and it's ultimately healthy and tends toward the creative, the expressive--good, bad or indifferent.
I even remember when he said that at Bandon Dunes. I asked him on the putting green what he thought of Pacific Dunes and he just said it was so different. When I asked what he meant by that he just kept saying it was so different.
I think I understand why he said that and how he can also say something like what Fazio did at Shadow Creek takes immense talent too although I really do doubt that Coore and Crenshaw would ever want to do something like that. And I don't mean to say he likes everything--at one place he didn't even want to get out of the car.
I think the "Big World" theory about golf architecture is right though. Different golfers like different things. Some will like things you don't and won't like the things you do. So what? It's a great big world in golf course architecture and there really is room in it for everyone.