John, I personally spoke to Jim Nagle in Ron Forse's office; Gil Hanse; and, originally Doak, then Bruce at Renaissance.Oh, and of course Mr. Hills had submitted a proposal to do his 2nd (or 3rd?) full master plan for the course. Ron and Jim have done excellent work at many Ross designs, and so has Gil. But I think a few factors lead to Renaissance: 1. They are local, sort of speak. They're not very far away from Essex in relation to the others; 2. While most other firms were proposing expensive ($30,000US) master plans, Renaissance casually offered a one-day, $1,500 + expenses consulting visit. Although it doesn't sound like much, most clubs will learn more about their respective courses in that one-day than they ever dreamed possible. Their reasoning is basically, "how can we sit up in our office in Traverse City, and tell (Essex) they need a $30,000 master plan. Let's go look at the course and then determine the next step". It's a very, very logical proceedure, in my opinion. 3. And Renaissance has done some great work on Ross courses. Most notably Franklin Hills in Detroit (Hepner), and Holston Hills in Tennessee (Doak) -- two outstanding designs, in fact. Renaissance takes a very solid, common sense approach. Most "Golden Age" courses are architecturally sound (in reference to their original design), so why not simply take a look at what can be restored? It is the easiest way to enhance the enjoyment of such a course. Putting in bunkers in the 235-240 range from the tee; softening greens in favour of speed; narrowing the fairways, and lining them with trees in the name of difficulty are methods that have finally proven inferior to the methods of the master architects, which ironically are the exact opposites: random, strategic bunkering; bold green contouring; very few trees, and none impeding on play; and ultra-wide fairway in order to accomodate infinite strategic options.