Hi Paul,
I've played there a half dozen times and like it quite a lot. There are many very strong holes and a couple of clinkers, to my eye.
The course is "new" but feels extremely mature - credit the orchard/tree farm that used to occupy the property.
It's a housing community, so there are (huge) homes almost everywhere - far enough off the course that you never think you'll hit 'em, but close enough that you just might.
The clubhouse is enormous - largest I've ever seen. Some might call it over the top. Would hate to see the facilities maintenence budget.
The course is very walkable, with only a couple of longish jaunts between tees, and even those are pleasant, shaded strolls through the woods.
Practice areas are great. The property used to house a golf school and they kept the executive course. Be careful practicing on the practice-area putting green - it putts differently than the big course!
As Chris mentions, The Bridgewater differs from the Dye's other fairly recent Central Indiana work. It has very little of the engineered look of the Brickyard... or the brawny ball-busting of Kampen... or the natural drama of the The Fort.
Its strength, in my humble estimation, is its subtlety. The greens have few dramatic whirls and swirls, but they are extremely hard to read. "Hard one putt, easy two putt" one might say.
#1 is a tame opener that can be played with anything from a 5 iron to a driver, but the closer you get to the green the more touchy the approach over a front-center bunker becomes.
#2 is a FANTASTIC par 3. It's elevated, though not as much as it appears - because the tees are also slightly elevated. The greensite is deep with a narrow frons and steep dropoffs port and starboard. There is ample room to miss long, but the putt from there to a front pin is very difficult.
#3 Is a bunkering minefield of a par 4 that demands a firm decision off the tee: FW to the right, leaving you an approach partially obscured by bunkers... or driver left that MUST NOT go too far left. The driver will also have to deal with a just-off-centerline bunker. That said a good drive is richly rewarded.
#4 is a very good par 5 that invites you to cut as much as you dare over inside dogleg bunkering. Hit the hero's shot left and you'll be able to see the green for your 2nd (and 3rd if necessary). Hit right and you are safe and completely blind on your second with a centerline bunker looming somewhere out there.
#5 is another very good par 5 - straightforward drive, huge decision for your second - if you play it as a three-shotter, your second should go well out to the right, to a fairway lobe that's snuggled in beyond a well-located tree stand.
#6 is shortish with multiple tee ball options. This green more than any other is delightfully vexing - there's probably less than a foot of break across the entire surface, but there's no a flat spot on the green. It gets harder to putt the more I play it.
#7 - Straightforward par 4. Well-bunkered. Fine but not great.
#8 - Par 3 with water all along the left side. Most fun pin is up front - Do you charge the hole and risk the hook? Play long and use a backboard to bring it back? Play safely out to the right and land in a bunker? Only safe miss is short, but who is going to do that on a 175 yard hole?
#9 - Very difficult drive with trees left and right. Green is the most dramatically contoured on the course.
#10 - A royal pain in the rear. Par 4 with bunkers left and water all along the right... and the far left... and HIDDEN water beyond the green left. The water past the green puts it over the top for my taste.
#11 - Flat par 3 cut out of the woods. Big green, big bunker left, fairly flat surface. Plays harder than it seems it should.
#12 - Big par 5 - Tee shot is pinched by trees right and left. Centerline bunker and water left complicates the second shot. Green is wider than it is deep. The members seem really proud of this hole but it's far from my favorite - too many things going on.
#13 - Plenty of room off the tee though the trees suggest otherwise. Left is better than right. Green is well-bunkered.
#14 - A very poor golf hole. Long iron to the fairway you
can see or 3w/driver to the fairway you
cannot see - at all. The local story is that the property owner along the lake that defines this hole put the kibosh on a proper greensite, thus necessitating this cramped, awkward alternative. I don't buy it. The story is good cover though.
#15 - another par 3 with water left and short. Feels much different from the watery 3 on the front side though. The super has let the cat tails grow on the shoreline, presenting a visual trick that seems to narrow what is actually a fairly wide green. There's inexplicable OB right. Hmmm - same homeowner as the previous hole - maybe he/she really doesn't like golf.
#16 - Reachable Par 5. Cool second shot. Plenty of room to miss right and the water left does not extend nearly as far as it appears - but long left is just awful.
#17 - First of two very long, tough par 4s. Left is in jail or OB. Right is in jail. Green is elevated and often the pin is well right on a shelf that in function if not appearances acts as a small Cape.
#18 - Long, straightforward, what-you-see-is-what-you-get. It's ends on another of those subtle greens that seems to give you putts that always miss by an inch.
#2 and #18 seem to me to be the best holes on the course, with #14 the clear caboose.
Have fun and report back - I'd love to read your take!!
-Scott
Edited to add: Not that it matters in the slightests, but for your mapquesting purposes - the course is actually in Westfield, not Carmel.