John --
Haven't been out there since the Open in '91. Will be out there dawn-to-dusk every day next week.
My understanding is that 15 has been considerably straightened since '91, to take right-OB out of the straight-tee-shot equation and to tempt the driver into their hands.
Troy --
The original Hazeltine was LOADED with severe doglegs, mostly now departed: Nos. 1, 2 (still a dogleg, but not nearly so severe), 5 (still a sharp dogleg, the last time I was out there), 6 (sweeping dogleg still, and a lovely hole) 7, 9, 10 (great hole), 15 (sharp-dogleg tee shot) and 18.
And the old No. 16 -- a super-long peak-to-peak par-3 guarded at greenside by a big tree, and which some wag described as the only dogleg par-3 in golf -- is gone.
And the greens were considerably flattened.
I'm no expert on golf architecture generally or Hazeltine specifically, but I'm not certain that the changes greatly improved the course. The new 16 is, I think, a terrific hole -- a fantastic test of one's nerves and skill. But in creating it, I think Hazeltine lost one of its very best holes when it jettisoned the old 17 (at the behest of PJ Boatwright, I've heard, who reportedly said Hazeltine would never get another Open so long as this hole remained). I wish they'd dumped the old 16, built the new 16, kept the old 17 (a 340-some-yard uphill dogleg-right that required a long iron to a narrow saddle fairway bordered by woods on both sides and a creek on the right side, followed by a short-iron over two small ponds to an elevated green), and made it a par-73. But Boatwright had his way.
Beyond the dumping of 17, the changes I really don't care for were taking the doglegs out of both 9 and 18, which now run perfectly parallel up the same slope to side-by-side greens. Boring. I'd have straightened No. 9 a bit and left 18 a big, sweeping, uphill dogleg-left -- a really manly hole.
And I think it's too bad that the straightening of 1 and 9 and 18 resulted in the disappearance of the Children's Course, which used to reside between 1 and 9.