Tom,
I presume you are at least familiar with the land at Inverness, but maybe not as it seems you were unaware that it was capped with sand. Be that as it may, do you actually expect to be considered on every "interesting" site? STOP... Please! I have never seen the land/site and I have never met Rod Whitman, but neither of these matter to me with respect to Mr. Whitmans ability to do a good/great job, yet I thought I detected a hint of hesitation as you refer to Rod's ability to do a great job. It is possible I was reading between the lines, but it seems others may have sensed a similar tone.
Now you might think I am sending one across the bow of the great ship Renaissance, but this isn't so, I am just a bit surprised by your comment in this particular thread. Perhaps you know something the rest of us don't? Would Rod's fee actually be lower than yours? Who knows, and is this somehow important to this project, or site, or Rod's skills? I can't see how. I guess if great design equated to how much one charges then Nicklaus Fazio, Norman and many others should have been doing much better work long ago!
I agree with Robert Thompson in saying I too would think Rod Whitman is quite aware how important this project is or could be for him, for that matter, I would go so far as to say that probably every project he does is important to him, regardless of the fee.
I wonder, does Pete Dye do a better job when he charges a big fee rather than his occasional nominal fee of $1?