"The idea of "strategic golf" didn't spring fully formed one day into the heads of golf designers. The modern notion developed over time. Your article would seem to be one step (among many) along that road.
What's equally interesting is that the concept - like any other concept - developed not just by way of fleshing out an affirmative definition, but also by way of opposition to other design ideas.
That is to say, an important step in figuring out what strategic design WAS, was to figure out what it WASN'T."
Bob:
I think that was not just true of the process of figuring out what strategic design WAS and WASN'T but it was also true of the process of figuring out what golf course architecture WAS and WASN'T----eg before they figured out what it SHOULD BE (particularly INLAND) they needed a few decades of creating things they came to realize it SHOULDN'T BE---eg basically replicas of things like steeplechase courses (certainly the hazard features). Some of this can probably be explained by the fact that most of the features (hazard and obstacle features) of the early linksland courses were not exactly man-made anyway!
I don't even think the process of TOC becoming more strategic was a result of the application of "strategic thinking" in golf architecture. At first it was merely a result of the process of figuring out how to make it less congested and less dangerous. That's why TOC was widened.
It may not have had much too do, if anything, with strategic thinking at first. It seemingly took the world a number of decades to figure out, and certainly with inland courses outside Scotland and the linksland, what that widening of TOC actually meant in the context of both "strategic thinking" AND "golf course architecture".
I think it took golfers or just MAN, 2-3 DECADES, after the first emigration of golf outside Scotland or coastal areas like the Scottish linksland, to figure out WHAT the significance WAS of what those areas had naturally, AND that THAT had to basically be completely replicated by man-made construction ELSEWHERE around the world in all other areas that never HAD those kinds of NATURAL features and assets for golf that the linksland and coastal sites had.