David M:
You must have worked for the Clinton White House because you have this delicious habit (shall I be so kind to call it that) with parsing to the eeeeeeeeeeeeenth degree.
Let me refresh your memory before you engage in the endless spin cycle that is your forte.
I meant what I said -- if someone believes from only playing ONE course that it is the ultimate golf experience without having any sort of sample from which to compare how does one know for sure? Like I said if you feed someone McDonald's and that's the only hamburgers they have ever had it's possible they will believe McDonald's to be the ultimate hamburger. That's simple for me to understand -- maybe you just like McDonald's.
David -- when you say "look around" what type of sample are we talking about? Is it just the courses in LA or Orange counties? Or is it a bit broader than that? If you're sample size is really quite small it's hard for me to pontificate (I know you can) on how things measure up when you only have such a small sampling to go by. When a golf course is the "ultimate" I have to base it on more than just that experience in order to provide some sort of context. Maybe that doesn't matter to you, but it does to me.
Another point you said, "The galavanter has no desire to settle down even when faced with quality." Hello -- where did you make that leap in logic?
I've played Bethpage Black over 200 times -- do you think I go back there just to play games on the LI Expressway? You see David -- my lawyer argument friend -- I like to reside in both categories -- you seem to imply that homebodies can assess greatness from a narrow base of options and I don't agree with that. Look, if Joe Sixpack BELIEVES IN HIS O-W-N MIND that he is playing another version of Cypress Point from the local muni in his backyard so be it. Like I said before -- ignorance can be bliss and I say to Mr. Sixpack go knock yourself out.
You also said, "why would anyone feel the need to announce with certainty a course's quality, or to fully identify and classify the experience." David -- go visit any 19th hole and this sort of thing happens all the time. People share their experiences with their golfing buddies and usually pinpoint a given place and recommend others either to play it or avoid it.
If you don't do such a thing then I believe you're the one in the minority.
You also keep using the word "fun" -- I don't doubt people can have "fun" and they can have "fun" simply by whacking balls at the range or even in playing putt-putt. If that's what floats their boat -- great. That's just not for me. I want to more fully explore what exists in golf and visiting places -- as well as returning to the tried and true -- provides me with the consumate enjoyment or "fun" as you define it.
David -- I agree for the most part by which Huck defined Pac Dunes and Black Mesa. They are both stunning golf courses and among the finest "new" courses I have played in the States. I don't throw such comment forward without giving them some serious thought. I would just hope that those on this site would not look upon Black Mesa as being beneath Pac Dunes simply because of the person who designed it. Baxter Spann did a superb job in creating holes that fit within the "given" landscape and as Ron Whitten correctly point out in his review I also believe the strategic elements you find at Black Mesa will always rise to the occasion -- the first time -- the 100th time -- the millionnth time. Since you have not played Black Mesa you need to play it before wondering if my analysis is spot on.
Last point -- when you say, "Not trying to suggest that one approach is better than the other, just trying to understand a perspective which is foreign to me (and perhaps might have been foreign to many before me.)"
I have to stop laughing ...when you say that you're not suggesting one is better than the other -- of course you
are -- otherwise why all this time wasted typing your comments over and over again? David -- what's foreign is that YOU may need to fully explore what golf courses exist in this country to get a much better handle on why someone like me and others may feel the way we do. Nothing more -- nothing less.