As far as I know, Black Creek was the first course "designed in homage to old architects"... the idea was "to present to modern players the same strategic options and problems that Raynor/Macdonald courses presented to players in the Golden Age."
The only departures from this philosophy in my mind are:
The Biarritz hole is not actually a driver to the back. It should be about 300 to the center of the back section to approximate the actual shot that confronted scratch players in 1925. You can imagine the howling if we built something like that... although I wish we had. We get plenty of howling about it as it is. No one understands the Biarritz green except this particular (GCA) community of nuts.
We built 2 Redans, one a reverse. That hole, number 7, is perfect in my mind in adhering to the idea. The 11th, however, is too short- and maybe too downhill. Maybe it could have been an Eden- we don't have one- another departure. I like the 11th fine, though- it's just not a strict adherence to the idea. We have added a tee to increase the length, and I think it's better now- the angle also changed a little.
I believe Brian Silva was so captivated by the idea and the freedom to execute and the comraderie of the group that bought into the premise, that this course is among his best, if not his best.
Mike Keiser came to play the course with me and he loved it... this was before Coore and Crenshaw were selected for Bandon's third course. I don't know if he was inspired to pursue the Old Macdonald idea by Black Creek, but it couldn't have hurt.