Martin - I think golf and gca will get a real boost only if/when the most interesting and talented architects fully embrace the challenge and potential of garbage dump/landfill sites.
(Right in the middle of -- and rising 100+ feet above -- the Mississauga Ontario (sub)urban sprawl, sits Brae Ben, a good municipal course that is always busy and always windy, and that has turned an unusable eye-sore into lovely green space.)
To me it seems obvious, ie the game and the craft of gca began in Scotland on land that wasn't any good for growing food or for much else of any importance. A re-birth of the game and a re-visioning of the craft will (similarly) happen on land that today is good for almost nothing else, ie urban/suburban dumps and landfills.
But for the possibilities to be realized, it will take architects who are willing -- instead of inwardly grumbling that they don't get remote, dramatic, sandy and/or sea-side sites -- to create the best 'new' kind of golf and gca on these kinds of sites, in good faith and with genuine enthusiasm. And it will also take the fancy pant retail golfers to refrain from turning up their noses at such courses -- courses of humble origins, with no 'history', close to home, accessible to many, without thousand dollar amenities and million dollar views, and on 150 acres instead of 600.
I can hold my breath waiting on the architects; I think sooner or later there'll be some blue collar young guy with real talent and ambition who will focus on such sites -- even knowing that his courses won't win any awards right off the bat, or immediately jump into the Top 100 lists. I'm not so much holding my breath on pampered retail golfers jumping on board.