Continuing on with the description.
Hole 7. This is the one hole which where the footprint is different. There are substantial changes and writing them out may be too confusing but I will try.
-- The tees are in the same place, but the white tee area has been widened (come to think if it, this is a change which was not really a result of the flood because this tee box wasnt damaged.) Also, a shorter red tee was added.
--The green has been moved back about 30 or 40 yards, and is now closer to the eighth green. it also sits up quite a bit higher than the other green, and has a huge bunker right in front of it, another bunker off the front right, and a small and deep bunker right.
--The green itself is very large, wider than it is deep. There is a swale which runs through the green vertically, and extended apron in the front and right. As you can see in the pictures, the ground slopes down from the green on all sides.
-- The old right fairway is still there, but it doesnt begin until closer to the green. It will take a very large drive to reach the right fairway now.
-- The first fairway has been changed quite a bit, although some of you might think you are looking at approximately the same thing. Most notably, the fairway continues quite for quite a bit further and to the left of where it used to, maybe as much as 100 yards further.
-- So, while one must still lay up with a long iron or fairwood to avoid going through the fairway and into the wash on the right side of the fairway, all but the very longest hitters can driver down the left side to get close to (and left of) the green, if they so choose. But the drive left will be partially blind (over a ridge of the canyon) and will have to carry a nifty new secondary wash which feeds out of one of the side canyons, runs down the left side of the fairway, and then crosses both No. 7 and No. 6 in front of their white tees.
-- The fairway itself has been recontoured to drain better, and the whole thing sits quite a bit higher than it did before, at least near the canyon wallso hopefully the water will run around it rather than through it. There was a small fairway swale running straight across the landing area. Now there is a more pronounced fairway swale which meanders a bit, so if one plays safe to the middle of the new fairway, one might well end up with a very uneven lie.
In sum, there are now three or for options off the tee.
--First, he longest hitters can still try to hit the right fairway, but this is much more difficult shot than before.
--Second, one can also hit down the right side, flirting with the wash right and long, and leaving a longer approach to the tricky green.
--Third, one can pound a driver down the left side to approach the green from the far left side, with as little as seventy yards to the center of the green.
--Fourth, one can do something in between option Two and Three leaving a shot directly over the huge bunker and risking an uneven lie.
At least that's the idea, I think. As far as what works from where is complicated by the width of the green, the swale through the green, the large bunker in front, the fact that one cannot see the green surface except in the very front right (which may or may not be false when the greens get up to speed.)
The pics above with the arrows show just how drastically different the approach will be from different points on the fairway. They dont include a picture from the optional right fairway, which will probably give the best angle at least some of the pins.
It was fascinating watching this thing be built, and it will very very interesting to hear what people think once they have played it ten or twelve times.
Some More Pics
From the front of the red tee (new), showing all the room to drive left and the new (and still not quite finished, I think) waste area/ wash.
Another shot of the first fairway.
Another shot of the big bunker which sort of bleeds into the wash.
The seventh green from the bunker near the right front corner.
The seventh green from the eighth tee.
