Philip,
I think the thing is that we are 25 years behind the Americans. Just as when someone introduces a new management technique in the States we get it here about three years later, so it is with golf courses and their design.
Television has something to do with it in that we now see lots of tour golf from the States and developers here say, 'I want my course to be like that,' believing that if they play a tour event on it and get the likes of Tiger, Vijay and Mickelson in the field, then it must be a good course.
Another factor has been the development of golf in Spain and Portugal. Those Brits who go abroad to play golf there in the winter months rave about courses built by the Trent Jones family, Roquemore, Cabell Robinson, Joe Lee and I suspect that those Brits who have landed design jobs there - Donald Steel, Martin Hawtree, Dave Thomas, for instance - have been required to follow in their footsteps to some extent. True, it was Henry Cotton who opened up the Algarve to golf with Penina, but it is hardly a classical course! Now British golfers are travelling to Florida and the Carolinas for winter golf and they are mostly going to be playing resort or public access courses - not many will find their way onto Seminole or Pinehurst #2. These people want the same kind of course in Britain which is why we have the Oxfordshire, Hanbury Manor, Carden Park, The London, East Sussex National and, dare I say it, The Belfry. It is also why I have been at pains in my books to include such courses - many people want to play that kind of course.
Which reminds me, the Seve Trophy was played at The Wynyard this year. I don't know it, although I drive past its gates from time to time on my way to and from Hartlepool. What's it like?