We all think differently from the mainstream on a lot of fronts. That's also why I'm here. I do believe, however, that it's important to evaluate our own assumptions, and back them up with more than just an initial hypothesis. Plenty of GCAers had their pitchforks and torches ready for Valhalla a few weeks ago and have kept them in hand all the way through the tournament. Conventional wisdom on this site says that it's a crappy, penal, modern course with little architectural interest. That all may be true, but very few have offered specific examples to back up their assumptions. Don, I'll give you credit here. I may disagree with your premise that the bunkers at Valhalla are not architecturally sound, but at least you offered a real criticism with examples directly from the course. Your thread was a refreshing one with a specific focus and has encouraged some good debate. There are far more threads and posts that simply draw on old GCA cliches:
* Nicklaus=bad, penal, architecture with no strategy
* Green=bad, overwatered
* Valhalla = bad because it's Nicklaus and green and not minimalist and therefore can't be strategic or interesting to play
If we can back up our positions with specific examples, observations, and facts, then the credibility of the ideals espoused on this site will grow. If we just make a bunch of repetitive noise, we ruin that credibility. This site has a tremendous audience that goes well beyond the 1500 or so who post here. It shouldn't be that hard for us to have discussion that makes us sound smarter and more observant than the guys on GolfWRX.
On that note, the part that most concerns me is that the Discussion Group appears to be turning into a McIlroy fan page. How many threads fawning over Rory have started in the last few days? One of them was started just to post a photo of him. It seems innocuous at first - just pictures of him sitting in a courtesy car and wearing what appears to be a Rally's uniform, posing with a teenage girl. Pretty soon it'll be threads showcasing shirtless photos of him with hearts drawn all around his torso. I was around on Twitter for the Belieber era, and this is starting to feel reminiscent. At least with Justin you could choose to ignore the related hashtags though, and Twitter is really designed for that sort of thing. This is supposed to be a much more focused Discussion Group.