This thread wasn't meant to be about how individuals can gain access to great courses; I think we've had plenty of those in the past. Rather, I wanted it to be about how clubs with great courses could (and should?) grant access to individuals.
The real beauty of the Muirfield/overseas model is that absolutely anyone can plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Scotland, or England, or Ireland, or Australia, and expect to see lots of world-class architecture. The real pain of the US model is that even if I (as someone living overseas) live right/get lucky/etc. and make a connection with a member of a great course in the States, I'm not likely to fly across just for the purpose of joining him for a round at his course. I could personalise this still further with more details about my own situation, but that would miss the point just as surely as someone like Tom Huckaby talking (with the best of intentions) about how he's managed to play lots of elite courses down the years does. Some of you make the access question sound like a complicated puzzle with a number of difficult but not impossible solutions; the real shame is that it has to be a puzzle at all.
There's another angle to this topic which some of you perhaps may want to consider. How does the average American golfer come to learn about the joys of firm-and-fast conditions or any of the other non-mainstream architectural values which many of us on this site believe are so important? The short answer is that he can't: overseas examples (e.g. linksland golf) can be dismissed as a novelty which is irrelevant to the American experience, and good homegrown examples are few and far between. So he's left to "learn" from what he sees on television, particularly at the Masters and the US Open - where of course the wrong lessons are usually learned, because these are extreme examples for so many reasons. What would it do to the level of discourse on GCA in America if a regular group of four buddies could travel to a Crystal Downs, a Merion or an NGLA to see what the fuss is all about, and then bring some knowledge of that experience back home to their club?
By the way, the "four buddies" point is quite significant in and of itself - how someone experiences a golf course is entirely different when he's relaxed and with his mates relative to when he's the guest of a member (or members). Most of you will have travelled overseas or to a Bandon/Pinehurst/etc. setup with your closest golfing buddies and will know what I mean; for better or worse, that experience cannot be repeated at private clubs in the States.
Cheers,
Darren