Tom,
I thought about posting something about your quote yesterday, but got busy and felt it wasn't worth arguing about. Tony just gave me a mulligan.
I agree that there are probably no great greens that haven't had the gca tweak them in the field. Plans are great for a lot of things, but micro contours probably aren't one of them. Its that last little flare that can make a green great.
Probably a separate, but interesting topic, is the relative (there are no absolutes) strengths of different methods. When I defend plans, I am defending that they work for me, not that they are the only way. I believe all methods inherently place certain limitations on the gca thought process, not just plans.
I know from experience drawing green plans, with contour lines especially, that certain visual tendencies of that method lead to unintended results, at least if you don't actually see what you draw get built. Here are some tendencies I fight, luckily, I think, successfully.
First, it often looks better in plan for a contour line to paralell a green edge, when in reality, a rolling green edge looks better, and requires contours to cross the green edge. Actually, the same applies to fw, and I believe the plan drawing method has resulted in a lot of flat fw with mounds on the sides going up steeply, rather than rolling across the fw more naturally.
Second, in plan view, its easy to start relating all the surrounding contours to the green edge, rather than to the outside surrounds, almost too religiously. In fact, its too easy to ignore the lighter, dashed existing contour lines, although computers, with the ability to color any line make that easier.
I told the story the other day of an early green I built for K and N in Wisconsin. We had a tendency to do "2 mounders" behind the green back then. My green plan for the 8th at Lake Arrowhead in Nekoosa, WI was one such plan. (which I was very proud of!) However, they sent me in the field for construction staking and I soon realized that the fills were reasonable, until I got to the back left mound, which had a fill of about 18 feet. That slope didn't look goofy on plan, but it did immediately in the field. I field adusted, doing one big mound on the right that tapered to nothing on the left, in effect field correcting my plan. But, I also made a mental note and always paid more attention to high and low sides when drawing green plans later, to this day.
But, as noted earlier, I think there are some weaknesses in working completely in the field as well. While I have my thoughts, I will leave it to others who might care to chime in on similar experiences where total field work led to less than perfect results.
In essence, of all the tools the gca has available, the trick is to use each to its best advantage. And to keep designing right to the very end when the grass must be sown.......