Rob - we'll just have to agree to disagree. LP is on an unusually good piece of property for PG county although it is not without its detractions. Hole #1 (470 yds with double forced carry) is simply too hard a first hole. In fact, forced carries could well be the theme of LP (there are about ten). The front nine finishes with a fine 4-5-3 series along the lake. From the back tees (225 all over water) number nine is one tough hombre. The inward half at LP is in quite a beautiful setting - densely wooded. All holes are solid although #15 (450 yds), another double forced carry to a stingy green, may be over the top on the difficult scale. The routing at 18 is crazy. If you are walking, you back up the field by having to leave your bag after crossing the road, walk part way around the lake to the tee, tee off, then retrace your steps back to your bag and around the lake to the fairway. I found LPs greens to be good but not particularly memorable. The bunkering is clearly patterned after Dye although it's less inspired as compared to the tamest Dye. The conditioning, when I saw the course, was good. For a daily fee, the clubhouse was also quite good with a scenic veranda overlooking the lake.
Oak Creek is a more inspired layout. Architecturally there is much better variety in OC than LP. This course is a big departure for Clark. He seems to have jumped on the Hanse, Coore, Doak bunker train as Tom's bunkers at OC have hand cut perimeters, are scruffy and irregular, and placed at unpredictable locations - all adding to complicate your attack and interest in a hole. OC's green complexes are marvelous - some huge, some tiny, some with intriging interior contours, some ledged, some mounded, some with false fronts... Clark really put thought into these. You're quite right about the routing. yet another example of a course totally dictated by the housing. The road crossing after one and again after eight is unfortunate. Still, the course explores a diverse piece of property - fields, tobacco barn, ponds on the front and rolling woods on the back. The 18th hole is the real black mark at OC - blind and completely forced. It is one of the poorer finishers I have ever seen.
The course needed to grow in when I saw it as the grass on the fairways was thin.
I don't know about the finances of the club. The clubhouse was on hold when I played there last summer. I don't think anyone would have any problem playing OC although you may have to endure a real estate pitch. When I played there there were, literally, just a few dozen members. I have to believe they are "recruiting".
Let's get Cirba and play it together this summer.
JC