Jonathan:
There have really only been a handful of times that I thought a piece of property had the potential for a great course, but decided against pursuing it anyway.
The only reason to walk away is if I don't think the client and I would be on the same page. There was a little bit of that at Erin Hills ... when I interviewed with Bob Lang, he mentioned something about wanting to build an 8,000 yard course, and I questioned why he would want to do that. [Acutally, I did the same thing many years ago at what is now The Institute GC in California.] A great salesman would have just sucked it up and tried to get the job anyway, but I am just not interested in exploring 8,000 yard courses.
The rest of those handful of jobs, I'd prefer not to identify.