Tom (and Mark)
ASGCA believes that any course would have the right to a second opinion, if they are open about it to both architects. Maybe even if they aren't, as we have no control over them. I have seen it happen. Most design contracts allow either party to disengage at various steps, especially if the other side doesn't live up to its obligations. Owners usually have a clause that allows them to disengage without a specific cause. owners a bit more leeway. Geez, I have seen a lot of speculation on what ASGCA allows. As Mark notes, it's nothing that common sense wouldn't lead you to anyway.
Of course, they may not disengage the original architect if they really do just want a second opinion and aren't really unhappy. I had a few clubs ask me out "after hours" for about a one hour consultation to see if their less experienced architect was really on the right track and didn't feel like I was stepping on any toes. I did not make any move to get a new contract in place of said architect, I merely gave them my advice. I'm not sure what I would have said if they pushed the issue, but the projects were well into construction when I was asked, and it is rarely a good idea to change horses at that point.
Obviously, it is best if they make their best decision in the interview process.
As to the vicious circle, while I (almost) always had a working wife to cushion the down times, I did rely on commissions to feed a staff of up to 7 in addition to my own family. The period after my divorce was difficult financially as anyone who has been there knows.
I guess you could get into a vicious cycle of taking nothing but bad jobs - although my mentors once asked how I would know it was a bad job before the design actually started. There is something to be said for the challenges of providing a good product on a low budget to courses that couldn't have anything nicer unless someone with a viewpoint that you are doing more for golf on the low budget courses than others are doing by taking a string of high $$$ projects and nothing else.
More practically, most architects and contractors take whatever they can if there is no work, but if they have a prospect of some regular income, begin to get pickier (until those fees run out) Then, I guess, the cycle could keep going and there are those who just don't know how to escape that trap. The biggest trap I recall is that your early clients had you personally, and later on come to expect that, so sometimes my associates were designing the bigger projects while I was attending to those who thought I was still a struggling one man firm.
PS - I was once roundly chastised in this forum for noting that feeding my family and making a fairly nice living was something I was proud of, as well as employing up to 7 people at professional level wages (if at the lower end of that scale) for 40 years. My employees never missed a check......although before I had a line of credit, I had to ask them to postpone cashing them from Friday to Monday ONCE in 40 years. And, I had one employee who let me hear about that for years afterwards. (I know many Landscape Architecture firms that were famous for not paying their employees when money was tight, although most gca's I have know took pride in paying their employees first. If you own a design biz, you will almost certainly skip your own paycheck a few times (if not more) to pay your employees or invest in the biz. (adverts, marketing, tech, etc.) When I had an employee who made the "the workers are doing the work and should get paid higher than the boss/owner) I would know off the top of my head how many checks I skipped for a rebuttal.
I started at age 29, with a motto of "What could possibly go wrong?" That helps, believe me. At the end of my first year in business, I remember the local drafting and print store having a year end sale on plan files and large scale printers, which I knew a real office needed. I ordered both. Their combined cost was like $2000 and my biz checking had about $3000 in it at the time. Like I said....What could go wrong with that?
And, they say 80% of small businesses fail before 5 years, and most small businesses are never more than 4 months from going broke. So, if practicing architects here get snarky at those who assume we are "just in it for the money" I hope you understand. Which brings up another fond memory, but on a project near Denver that Perry Dye got, and which I figured I had no shot, someone on the committee asked if I was just in it for the money. My response was, "If I was looking to make money, I would sell women's clothing, since it seems to be marked up about twice what men's clothing is." I then ran off a string of other jokes. They remembered me, but they didn't hire me, lol.