Kyle:
As you see I went back and did some editing, because I thought things through a bit more and understood your take a bit better.
I do that sometimes. Post, review, revise. I really ought to do it before I hit the post button, yes.
In any case, your solutions sound great to me.
But what is most intriguing is the last question:
Well-struck needn't be straight. What if the architect made the fact that the club is straighter to hit a liability every now and then? RIGHT ON! That's what we need - more requirement to work the ball. That's another thing I thought of in my hickory experiment, as it is actually a lot EASIER to do with those than with the mega-Ti modern drivers we all seem to have.
The problem is, this seems to be a lost art on too many courses. And where it does exists, it's due to huge overgrown trees far too often... which isn't the best solution either.
It does remain a VERY rare hole where the benefit to curve the ball exceeds the long straight shot a driver can so easily give, and thus making one go back to long iron or fairway wood, which are usually easier to curve these days....
But if more of those exist, that is a GREAT solution.
I'm gonna seek these out. I do believe they are rare. And when I do find a course with a lot of those, I won't feel too bad using modern implements.
TH