Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. Some responses:
KBM--thanks for clarifying that what I meant was "higher cut" rather than "slightly rougher ground." It's a maintenace thang. Also, you are right that higher cuts on slopes come into play earlier in the round at Dornoch, particularly to the right of 2 and 5. Then later at 10 and 18. Also, however, and importantly, there are greens where putting from great distances is both practicable and thrilling, particularly 3, 9, 11, 12, 15 and 16. Which lead to.....
.....Brian G--I never talked about "killing" the ground game, particulary in terms of any specific opponent. As Tom IV (the Huckster) rightly perceived, much of the point of thread was about options and the fact (at least to me) that any course which allowed for/required any particularly shot (whether it be lob wedge or Texas wedge or whatever) was somehow lacking, when talking of "greatness." Which takes us to bermuda......
.....which I played almost exclusively for the 2 years I lived in Florida, and which I came to admire for it's ability to test one's ability to read grain and execute full and partial swings perfectly, but which I found boring to the nth degree when related to the short game....
.....sorry, Brent...
....but kudos, Huckster. You get a gold star, as does....
....Andy H., and......
....George P., who always seems to come around to my point of view, agonizingly slowly sometimes, but always, and ......
....Mike H., who sees the darker side of the paradox I was trying to explain in my original post. My "shock and horror" was exactly relating to extending the "low sleeper" concept to something like billboards betgween you and the ball, or even windmills, but OOPS!, that has already been done at NGLA, no?
Of course I knew I could count count on my Captain of Vice from the GCA Ryder Cup, John "Tiger" B., who has arisen form his Pilates exercises to let us know that he actually raised this same question with the poohbahs at Rye last year and the answer was.........(imagine a Carnac imitation here......).........
........"We don't have a bloody clue! Now pass the Kummel!"
Which may be the answer to my initial question as to why Rye chose the embedded sleeper option.
If you look at Andy L's picture, that sleeper seems to be at the top of an old filled-in bunker. Maybe, just maybe, that sleeper just arose one day, as the bunker fill subsided, and as a sliver. Over time--say 20-30 years--the ground-fill subsided more and more and more sleeper was exposed, but it happened so slowly (and people intermittantly complaining were probably so plied with Kummel) that it was ignored, until you got to the situation today, where it does give pause for thought to the inveterate Texas wedger, who may have been lulled into a false sense of complaceny by previous holes, but now finds that he must loft the ball, even if so ever gently, or aim away from the hole. "Shock! Horror!" Of the right kind. Of the GCA kind. Of the kind that tells you that variety and chance and challenge are some of the keys to great golf course architecture. Even if it seems as goofy as a partially submerged railroad tie at Rye.......