Adrian...
I think you are correct...but what do you think about this (and yes...I am serious...it just sounds silly)
I think the average golfer thinks he wants fair and predictable and the first few times he plays an unfair/unpredictable course, he might get angry/frustrated at the course. But the more he plays the "fair" course, the more bored he will get, while the more he plays the "unfair" course the more he will grow to love and understand it and the game. So, what he thinks he wants he really doesn't.
I am whacked out or right?
Mac I think theres a lot of truth in what you say, first time I played Westward Ho! i thought WTF...I got it on the third time I played it when I hit my tee shot way right of the stone on the 3rd and hit a perfect iron in over a bunker and could not hold the green..I had of course hit my tee shot in the wrong place. That aside a lot dont get WH and a lot dont get TOC, often its good players and their point is you can pitch a 6 iron into a slight upslope or downslope and have 60 foot of distance change, that does not happen on the modern courses. The pro's dont want elements like that interfering with their paychecks, they are there to hit golf shots, many dont even remember the holes the next day, many dont care, but they all remember the green quality. I think there is some middle ground and I am sure the courses that our favourites on here design align themselves to the best bits of old fashioned golf and dont include stuff which is just too wacky. I think us on this site are a real minority and thats not wrong, we are just the passionate ones, I first saw Painswick in 1974 (I was 14) and loved it straight away and ever since, but believe me, you all want to see it from America, we have people living 15 miles away that have never seen it, never heard a good word about it or think its a joke. We have 9 cottages within 25 miles of Painswick and we do golf breaks, no one has ever asked to play there. The sad truth is most golfers dont care too much about where they golf, they want goodish greens, raked bunkers, flat tees and mown fairways, price is more important to the vast majority than anything.