Mark:
If you liked Sands Point, you should see some of our other courses where I actually got to build what I wanted!
That was a star-crossed project. I won't go into all the gory details, because I don't want a libel suit, but I will tell one story which summarizes how much of it went:
On the map above, check out the location of the fourth hole. Originally, that hole would have been placed right between the third and fifth, with short green-to-tee walks. But after about 25 versions of the routing, before we were ready to get started, the owner of one of three houses inside the property [the cut-out area at the bottom of the map] threatened to sue and hold up the project unless we moved the hole completely away from his front yard. The centerline was 200 feet away from his property line, which was plenty according to every book I read, but the property owner's threat would have generated a lot of legal fees for the town, so they caved in to him.
I've only gotten to play the whole course once since it opened. Hopefully I will be able to get back some this summer while I'm in the area!