Tim:
I've played this course! You're right -- there is some very good terrain there.
The story behind this course is quite bizarre -- I don't have all the details, but there has been a long-simmering fued between the club and some nearby property owners (perhaps condo folks who bought shares in the club?) and the island about the proper ownership of the course. My sense in reading up on it a few years, in preparation for a family vacation down to Dauphin, is that the dispute has hampered efforts to improve the course (Dauphin is a lot less touristy than the nearby Gulf Shores area, and in talking to locals there are on-going debates on the island about keeping it quiet and local and low-key vs. opening up the doors to upscale tourism-oriented development, and that has played a role in the dispute over the golf course, which right now is fairly rudimentary, not really upscale in any way.)
It's pretty true links terrain, esp. near the coastal area, with some areas probably similar to coastal Florida golf. There is a lake/lagoon in the interior of the course that plays a role in several holes -- one memorable par 4 (lower right-hand corner of the golf course aerial) is a dog-leg left with a Cape-like drive over a branch of the lagoon, with a tiny green sitting amid sand and native grass. The landing area for a typical 200-225-yard drive is about 20 yards wide! (The tee is just behind the little north-south path crossing the lagoon lower right of the aerial.) There is also a very good par 3 (upper right of the google aerial of the course) that is a tee shot through a chute of trees over a valley to a Redan-esque sited green perched on a small knob.
I thought, playing it a few years ago, what it could be in the hands of a solid architect. I don't have information on who designed it -- it looks somewhat home-grown, with no obvious sense of architectural design other than some bunkers pinching some greens and a few uses of terrain movement to incorporate some challenge. It's not difficult, and could be greatly improved.
Dauphin Island really got pounded by Katrina and a hurricane or two before that. I don't know how the course came through that, but the island lost numerous buildings and houses, including the one our family stayed at a few years ago. Still, it's a neat out-of-the-way place on the Gulf shore.