Just a word. Probably means different things to different people. And in terms of discussions about golf course design/architecture it's probably a dead end word -- i.e. it would be hard for the discussion not to become one about purity vs practicality, niche tastes vs mass market. But it's a word I've been thinking about in the last little while, and it's a good word -- for me -- to apply to a range of courses I think I would like very much. (I see I think because, with one exception, I have only seen them in pictures). But Walton Health and Pennard and Garden City and Lehigh and Crystal Downs and Prairie Dunes and Ballyneal -- lots of different architects behind those, some different looks and setting...but they all seem to me to be modest courses: in conception, in execution, in expectations. Something at the core of those courses (and several others, obviously) is modest...even if the designers were not (ha, ha). I think it's because at the core, the primary intention was to create a field of play....play being the key word, with field close behind. It was about playing golf, having a walk with friends, being challenged and delighted in simple, modest -- dare I say, humble -- ways.
Anyway, just thinking out loud.
Peter