Tom Doak,
Are you stating that all architecture should be viewed solely from the perspective of the world's greatest golfer/s, ignoring all other, lesser golfers ?
Patrick:
Certainly not. After all, I am one of those lesser golfers. But even I can attack the Redan at National with a high fade nowadays, and it's the only shot I am likely to try unless I am just pulling the crap out of the ball every time I try to hit a fade.
My experience is that people are going to try the running draw only when it's the only option they've got. So, if you give guys less than 15-handicaps the "option" of a high shot to the green, that's the only option they are going to consider or even recognize.
I learned this for sure from Pete Dye. A couple of years after I had gone out on my own, I got a call from Pete. The day before, he had gone around Old Marsh with the Ohio State golf team and one Jack Nicklaus. He said, "You know how all those greens are the same height at the back as the front, and there is plenty of fairway in front of most of them, like you always want me to have? Well, after watching Jack hit howitzers into the green for the whole front nine, when he was standing over his approach on ten, I asked him, 'Did you ever think about playing a low shot to a green like this and running it back to the hole?' And Jack responded, 'Why would I want to do that?'"