I leafed through GOLFER-AT-LARGE last night and I can not find any reference to minimalism per se. This book does have the essay referenced by Mr. Cirba about the problems with "double negatives" in golf course architecture. I too have always remembered that line.
I know my memory plays tricks with me, but I recall Charles Price talking about the art of Picasso and comparing it to the ideal golf course architecture, that nothing should be included that is unnecessary. Perhaps this was from one of his articles in Golf Digest, or perhaps my memory is wrong.
Nevertheless, while leafing through this book again I realized how much great stuff about architecture is in this book. Over the winter, I will occasionally post some of the interesting quotes I came across. Some will just be an interesting read, but some others may lead to some good debates.
I do know that of all of those issues of golf magazines that I read in my youth, most of the stuff that stuck with me was written by either Charles Price or Peter Dobereiner. I knew nothing about John Ball until Charles Price wrote about him. Peter Dobereiner had the same 10 club debate we have had on this site, but he wrote his article over 20 years ago.
It is nice the read the above posts and to see that others learned from Mr. Price’s writings and thoughts on golf. I did see that GOLFER-AT-LARGE was selling for a couple of bucks on alibris.com.
Finally, I consider myself very fortunate that while in high school and college, I was able to read Charles Price and Peter Dobereiner every month in Golf Digest, John Updike's annual Golf Digest essay, Herbert Warren Wind a few times a year in the New Yorker, and then Golf Journal eight times a year. What golf writers are today's magazines exposing to the next generation of golfers?