I'm still planning on posting more completely on Sevillano, but I need to get to my home computer where the pictures are, so I'll chime in a bit now on the discussion.
There is alot of debate about this course, specifically regarding the idea of the "par 5 course", but the conversations are heading in the wrong direction. Let's try to not make assumptions and criticize the course before fully understanding its intentions.
The facts as I understand it:
1) Yes, the "regular" course is long, with the tips at 7800 yards. HOWEVER, note I said "the tips". This entire debate BEGS the question...can a course be labelled "too long" just because it presents a set of tees that realistically should only be played by the BETTER players? NO! Come on people, quit trying to blame the courses and look a little more introspectively. Sevillano offers tee options of 7800, 7200, 6800, 6200, and 5400. Now, if "machismo" dictates that you ALWAYS have to play the tips, even if you can't break 100 from them, then that's YOUR problem, not the courses'. The starter at Sevillano did a great job of making the advisement to "play the tee appropriate to your game". True, people may not do this and it may make for a long, slow round, but who's fault is that? The courses'? Start placing the blame where it rightly should reside, with individual's choices on tee selection, and start worrying more about educating golfers to play the correct set of tees. Sevillano presents a unique and challanging layout for all levels of skill, WHEN PLAYED FROM THE RIGHT TEES. BTW, I'm an 8 handicap, and I played from the 7300 tees and I average about 275 off the tees and there was only one hole that I considered penally long.
2) To repeat again, according to my understanding, the 10,000 yard par 5 course is not to be used for everyday public play. It will be maintained and made available for full-field tournaments and exhibitions. THAT is the intention in the design...a unique layout, with a unique idea to try and bring out the BEST players to show off some shot making skill and have a little fun playing the strategies of par 5s on every hole. True, it might make for a long round for those tournament players, but I think that has to be anticipated and accounted for, and therefore won't detract from the game for the people that choose to play in those events.
3) The true drawback, be there any, to such a design, is the demand it places on the superintendent, who has to maintain a 10,000 yard course. This is precisely why I was interested to see the course. However, having now seen it, I can understand that the overall impact is surprisingly not as significant as I had imagined. Think about it....par 5s will simply have one more set of tees behind the "John Daly" tees (that is what the 7800 yard tees are called), the par 4s likewise will have tees significantly farther back, and the fairway of the hole is brought very close to the "regular" sets of tees resulting in quite a few forced carries, but that's why the course is not set up for the everday golfer. And the par 3s....that's the real challange and what I couldn't wrap my head around. You'll really have to visit the course to understand fully, but let's just say that the tees are islands in the distance and you've got to play some serious "target golf", to a more or less island fairway near the "regular" tees then onto the rest of the hole. So all in all, there isn't a HUGE amount of extra turf or distractingly odd layouts. But the par 5 course is DEFINETELY 100% for only the best players. I would love to play it once, for the shear novelty of it, but I am simply not good enough to play that much target golf. That's why exhibitions put on by pros WOULD be fun to watch, to see just how accurate they can be. Who isn't constantly amazed by someone like Tiger nailing a 350 yard drive on to a 4000 sq ft green? The same idea applies here....over and over again.
Go see the course....you have to to understand the design of the "par 5 course", but also because it provides some great holes and a well-maintained and conditioned affordable FUN public layout.