Niall,
Thanks for your response. I do recall that game with the Principal, David T and you (not least as Stan and I finished 3rd overall that weekend, I think!) and that I probably thought higher of Dornoch than you did. As you say, looking for slightly different things in a course can produce quite different opinions.
BTW, Muirfield is also one that's also up there in my top 4, and one where I think there's a bigger delta from accepted GCA wisdom.