I don't know why I should reply to Mr Warren here as he clearly knows it all already!
I have an opinion, Pat. That's all. No more, no less. I have invited you to respond to those opinions, but whether you see fit to is entirely up to you.
It was raining in London today so I went to the National Portrait Gallery for a wander.
I was sitting looking at three side-by-side portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and thinking about our difference of opinion. See, three painters had each depicted QEI at the same stage of her life, yet the three paintings looked like three different women.
Is one better than the others because it actually looked more like her, or because his version is more technically correct? Or are each of them valid in their own right because they represent what the artist saw?
How about songs? Do they strictly mean what the writer meant for them to mean? Or if you and I each listen to the same song and take away two different meanings are we both just as correct as each other because when we interact with a work of art we have an experience unique to ourselves?
In both instances I would go with the second option.
A golf architect builds what he sees in the land, and no one can say they were wrong to build what they saw, but by the same token, every person who plays that course will form their own unique opinion, as is their right. To them, that's what the course is.
When artists create and share, they invite their audience to react. In my opinion, golf architecture is no different to painting or photography or sculpture in that regard.
I think it's either tremendously ignorant or tremendously naive for an artist to create something, allow others to see it, then react aggressively and incredulously when some people don't react the way the artist feels they should.
Mike: There will always be opposition to debate. And there will always be people who want to censor opinions they disagree with. But whilever passionate people are willing to be honest the kind of debate and discussion this site thrives on will continue. Just my two cents.