Tommy:
Yes, you're right good buddy but let's not forget that a number of people here on GCA are into architect "branding."
That means if you take architect "X" and you are a fan of his then everything he does becomes the second coming of Jesus. The converse is also true and iusually applies to Rees Jones even though these people have played no where near a fair reflection of his total work to cast such a hard and lasting judgement.
I've played a good number of his courses (over 30) and I have said OVER AND OVER again that Rees doesn't hit home runs in all his design by a mile. Neither did Donald Ross -- neither did Pete Dye -- neither did Crenshaw & Coore -- neither did Seth Raynor and on and on it goes.
You play a course with a clean sheet of paper and then go from there. I've seen the evolution in the way Rees Jones designs courses. Even with that evolution he doesn't get them all right to the level of being called a masterpiece.
Tommy, we both played Santaluz in the Diego area. I liked the course but mentioned the long and drawnout cart rides were overdone for the sake of maxing out real estate sales. The quality of the holes are good in spots and in other areas they are lacking. The 2nd hole at the course is one of the best long par-4's you can play in the SoCal area IMHO.
I've said this before -- people need to PLAY a much deeper listing of courses by any architect before chiming in that such and such a person is at whatever level on the totem pole of architects.
The tendency to "brand" someone with a fixed label is really a sad commentary because there are people on GCA who want to be associated with the politically correct notion of what is being said by certain other posters. I am not saying this to be a contrarian but it's high time people saw and played more courses before deciding to pen their opinions from a scant portfolio of courses they have personally visited.
Nothing more ... nothing less good buddy.