So true, your first pp. When I used to hire folks, I always told them they would be evaluated over 6 months for permanent hire. Truthfully, I could usually tell within a few weeks whether they had that "designer's sense." At least, when we were busy, as we were lucky to be most of the late 1980's-2006 or so, which was probably the last time I actually had full time staff.
Ugh, not you [and Ally, too?]. It's pure ego to think that you born with some "designer gene", and the other 99% of the world was not. It's all a continuum, and while some people are going to design more interesting courses than others, it's not anyone's birthright.
To me, what makes someone better at design is understanding how all of the technical parts play their role, so you can design great holes that incorporate those details in a way no one even notices. By that logic, the more experience you have building golf courses, the better you're going to be at design. Someone with talent as a shaper or experience as a "construction guy" has a leg up on everyone else, all other things being equal.
Tom, Ah....I think if you Google it, you will find there are different personality types, with some leaning to design. I have told the story before but I took one of those personality tests (surprise....I have one.) The test giver came back with my results and said I was high in the design-developer category and should stay in the field I was in. You are correct that the traits of a designer ranked slightly along a spectrum. But, it was still a very small portion of the population in that spectrum area. It was one of those 4 part tests where your personality was measured in 4 areas, and you got a score of something like 6-5-7-2, indicating your relative strength in the 4 personality areas. BTW, the stereotype of the "temperamental artiste" is largely confirmed by these tests, although temperments can also vary within the design profession, with many different types being successful. For example, I never felt the need to cut off my ear to prove I was an eccentric genius.
Most people are straight line thinkers, while creative types have the (somewhat rare) ability to continuously process many different options and ideas. And, as Ally agrees, it isn't hard to pick the creative ones out. And, looking back to my landscape architecture class in college, we started with about 50 students, and ended with 12, with the others learning or being told they had about as much future in design as I had as a ballerina.......And of those 12, the two who appeared to be the least "hot shot designer" personalities ended up working as park department employees, or eventually dropped out of the design biz. Not that there aren't a lot of people out there not working in their major field after college, but still.
Yes, those who can shape might have a leg up, just as those who know how to do grading plans, etc., have their own leg up in a different way. Coming in with passion and no experience will probably make the learning process longer. But, we have always had diverse points of entry to the profession. Perhaps in the post WWII era when GI's and others were going to college, those scales tilted a bit to the landscape architect curriculum being the most common for that period.
I've always compared the ability to run a dozer making you a designer to the oft refuted idea that being a tour-level golfer somehow gave you the inherent skills to design. I have never actually seen that connection, and the shaper architects who are successful, IMHO, would probably have been successful in other methods of design operation as well. Many prefer the design-build method of implementation, but there is still design and there is construction. As Don so astutely notes, you are probably not an architect until you have a good understanding of both.
Both are important. My favorite quote on this is that they are both so important, if doing both at the same time, one is going to suffer compared to designing and building separately (to a degree, of course, being able to tweak the design in the field is important no matter how you practice....I always preferred to try to get 75-90% of the concept done before dozers moved (easier to move a mouse than move the earth to figure out a design)