Matt,
I meant to imply that I routed the course almost exclusively through the valleys, expressly to get the player out of the wind as much as possible. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
The course is pretty balanced, and gets its length from everywhere - a couple of 500 yard par 4's (although 14 is still considered a "layup" hole for the KSU golfers, 3 par 5's over 600, and 3 par 3's over 200, including 17, clocking in at 267,and directly into the prevailing SW summer breeze, to boot! It is a redan style, with a run up opening to the right, if you need it. (I do)
The wind can blow from any direction though. During construction, Mr. Cobert mentioned that the TPC had forced carries from the championship tees of over 200 yards, and felt that was reasonable. One day, a north wind hit the course, and he tried to hit a few tee shots into it, and found he couldn't carry the natives at that length, so we pulled them back. Of course, the fairways are wide, and the forward tees don't require much forced carries.
Also, Jim Colbert is pretty dogmatic about the best way to use the wind in design. We followed his thoughts - He is (I think) fairly typical of a competitive player will vary his shot pattern, to try to use every thing to his advantage to score well. As such, he likes all a hole's "traffic signals" to say the same thing. Thus, if the wind blows right, and the ground slopes right, then the fairway and green targets usualy angle right, to accept a fade, for example. He likes to test shot patterns on each individual hole, but does'nt like a lot of confusion about what those patterns need to be. Confusion breeds bad golf shots.
He likes definition, and for example, hates the 7th hole tee shot, because he hates to have to carry the corner of the left fairway bunker, or aim at the right bunkers. He likes framing bunkers to punish left to right misses better. On the other hand, he likes six, which has a carry bunker on the right, so go figure. I have only been working with him 25 years, and sometimes the language and thought pattern of the tour pro versus architect still don't mesh!
I saw Ron's evaluation, and all I know is many people tell me it isn't as tough as feared. Maybe they don't feel they can talk freely. I CH's play suffers a bit from folks who assume its too tough. On the other hand, when the first charge is to build a tournament tough test, its hard to keep it really easy for beginning players like Ron's daugther.
As to the Colbert/Sand Hills comparison, hey even I like Sand Hills better! C and C designed in a lot of "non standard fun" shots that you just wouldn't design in a course aimed at identifying the best collegiate players, given the basic ideas of how they like to play the game. Plus, as remote as CH seems, SH is so much more remote as to make it truly special. CH comes close though.