Some great posts and feedback here. I enjoyed reading through all of it.
Some questiosns were asked of me, so I will respond:
1. To Solow- Good point on expounding upon "why would I rather play here vs. there". I think over the years I have brought the thesis of my reply to this question down to... I would rather play a course that allows me to hit driver to generous fairways more often than not (preference for width), and then I like a course where the hole becomes more challenging from that point (getting it in play is not "in play or death" and then the hole becomes more challenging from the landing area to the hole). That is the way it is at NGLA, Dornoch, Yeamans Hall (to name 3). I would tell an architect to build more holes/courses like that. Searching for golf balls is a total buzz kill. Navigating the issues around challenging green complexes is like solving a puzzle...and that is fun for me. Build more golf holes like that.
2. To Pete B.- I totally agree with your point about Winged Foot's 2 courses. I would also add the 2 at Baltusrol. I much prefer the Upper there vs. the Lower. It has more interesting greens (as a set), and is "more fun" (to me) than the more challenging Lower course. I've always thought it was the better course of the 2, but people are afraid to rate it as such because the Lower is the "championship" course.
3. To Bill Brightly (and Brent Hutto)- I have played Royal County Down and Cypress Point. I didn't include Cypress on my list simply because I thought it would sound too ostentatious. It is extremely fun to play there for sure. I played Royal County Down in a 20-25 mph wind. I played there with Ran and as we were making our way down the hill to the landing area on 9 (literally holding onto each other a couple of times to avoid being blown over and falling down the hill), I remarked to Ran "Holy sh%*...this is full contact golf". I played very well that day for me (6 handicap) and I think I made 3 pars (and a bunch of very hard earned bogeys). Perhaps it was the weather we got that day, but as much as I loved the architecture at RCD, I didn't think it was a ton of "fun" (that day) and would not have thought to include it on the list of fun places to play that I posted.
4. To Jud and Jeff- I would rank FL Ross ahead of VN. I didn't make that clear in my above post, and I'm sorry about that. I have several close friends who are members at VN. Last year, while I was visiting one of them, we went out to VN for lunch, hit balls, and I told him I just didn't think I was playing well enough to go out there. We drove down the road to Doak's Quail Crossing and we had a very fun day. I don't play as much as I used to, and I just hate to suffer through a round I know I won't enjoy.
TS