Each to their own Tom, and we don’t often seem to disagree, but I have to disagree with you here.
There are often reasons totally unassociated with someone’s career or standard of work or activities that are highly important in their career or standard of work or activities. Dislike of or desire to travel, state of health or that of someone close them are but two examples.
There was a comment herein or elsewhere recently that was somewhat disparaging of James Braid because he didn’t design any well known courses in a certain country. Perhaps if the person making the disparaging comment had realised that Braid didn’t like being on a ship and back in his day it was the only way to travel between continents then they may have had better understanding. I similarly recall reading some negative comments about British golfer Neil Coles along the lines of why didn’t he play more in a certain distant overseas country, well NC hated flying!
Comparing just about anything has many levels but there are often levels below the surface that should be recognised as influencing factors too.
Atb
Thomas:
Yes, if you are the man's biographer, you should get into all of that, I suppose.
But if you are discussing his talent for golf design, as we do here, it is all pretty much irrelevant . . . just as it's irrelevant where Braid did or did not choose to work. The thing that matters is what he built where he did work, not gossip about which jobs he didn't take / didn't get hired for / etc.
I take my stance as someone whose kids and grandkids may someday have to listen to some golf historian try to put my own life into perspective. Do you think my son really wants to listen to someone speculate how my divorce from his mom affected the future of golf architecture, especially as said historian would probably never have met me or her or our son? That's what the Jones brothers have had to put up with in recent years, because their dad built enough golf courses to be considered famous.
I'm pretty used to it by now . . . I've had lots of golf writers try to psychoanalyze me and comment on my character flaws, based on a limited number of interactions with me, and seen through the lens of their own character flaws and whatever narrative they are trying to build. Two of the reasons I participate here are that a) I can answer such people directly, and b) there is a community of people who have interacted me for long enough to know that the accepted characterization of me as "difficult" is arguably wrong, or at least incomplete. But, hell, MacKenzie and Macdonald and Pete Dye were all considered "difficult", too, so at least a part of me knows it can be a badge of honor.