"Robert M. Gary" wrote:
The other day I shot the VOR approach into SMO for the first time in
low actual. I've often looked at that approach as one of the most
difficult I've seen published

Why do you think this is difficult? The only thing I see that's tricky
about it is that you need to keep up a steep descent (360 ft/nm from DARTS
to the threshold, and about 500 ft/nm from CULVE to the threshold, by my
calculations), but that's just a matter of energy management.

However, while taxiing back, I noticed a Gulf Stream land right on the
numbers. There is no way you can tell me he properly flew the approach
and was able to touch on the numbers.

Why not? Follow the descent profile until you can see the runway, then fly
the rest visually. The only thing is you need to realize ahead of time
that this is a steep descent profile and you'll need to reduce power and/or
add drag to stay on the descent profile without picking up too much speed.
In a spam can, I would certainly be flying this with the first notch of
flaps in from DARTS or FAC intercept if on vectors.