Greg,
The question isn't whether or not Stanley Thompson deserves to be in the Hall of Fame; of course he should, as do a number of others.
The question should be WHY aren't golf course architects as a group appreciated enough for the impact that there work has on the game?
Frankly speaking, even the everyday player talks of having played a "Ross" course or a "Tillinghast" course or a "Flynn" or "Mackenzie"...
We measure the greatness of players, not on how far they hit a ball or how accurately they can hit an iron in relation to a flag in the ground at a certain distance but rather on how they respond to the challenges presented to them by what the great architects put on the ground.
Take a look at the state of golf course architecture before 1900 and you will find courses laid out mostly comprise of small platforms to begin a hole's play from to a green surface off in the distance with basically a short-cropped grass field in-between.
The great players looked and realized how much more the game of goldf could be and so THEY began to design golf courses because they recognized that CHALLENGE is what makes golf pleasurable and accomplishment rewarding.
Golf course architecture is not a paint-by-numbers piece of paper where placing the right color in the correct box makes a picture but rather it's a canvas where the ability to transfer a vision that only the artist may at first see within his mind as he walks an overgrown plot of land and thus transforms it into a memorable place where a game is transformed into a passion.
Without great architects and architecture there would be no Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Tom Paul, Wayne Morrison, Ran Morrisset and so many others...
So again, ask the question "WHY aren't these greats of the game recognized?" Ask the Hall of Fame, write them and demand answers and let them know that these designers are not just architects of courses, but are the architects of the game itself. Ask the golf writers why they don't write articles about who should or shouldn't be in the hall of fame as their brothers in baseball do?
Why should there be such an outcry over Pete Rose both in the media and among the day-to-day baseball fans not being in his hall yet there be NONE men such as Flynn and Tillinghast and Thompson and Colt and Raynor and so many others?
The irony of this should pierce the hearts of every lover of the game; this game where it's history matters the most of any.
Let the architects in!
This is the only game where it is the field of play that defines greatness and individual accomplishment as much or more than the feats of the player.
Let the architects in!
How many players have defined their individual accomplishments because they won the Open at the Old Course rather than Carnoustie or the US Open at Pebble Beach rather than Pinehurst?
It is these fields of play where beauty is mixed with challenge and combined with strategy to create accomplishment that has awakened the passion in the heart of the average person to pursue their individual excellence out on them with friends, family or alone while simply competing with the thoughts in their minds.
Let the architects in!
Time to get off my soap box...