John Kirk:
I can see when you present the question of "hole sequencing" you're basically casting the subject in the context of "balance."
But one of the things I find really fascinating with some courses is---if there's an opportunity to start at least three and maybe four holes right around the clubhouse you then have an opportunity to sequence up to three or four courses within the course. Shinnecock is this way and so is Lancaster. I realize there are a ton of courses like this but it does give the club the opportunity to play the course in various sequences.
I recommend that Shinnecock should actually try this simply by printing up another card sequence just for variety. We call it the "Merion" sequence because the two par 5s come so early. It's interesting that the way Flynn originally designed Shinnecock it was as three nines with #14 being the start of one of the nines.
The Shinnecock "Merion" sequence would be;
Front nine: 14, 15, 16, 17, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Back nine: 1, 2, 3, 4, 18, 10, 11, 12, 13
Or for the same price of eggs you could play it that way but just flip the front and back nines. In all iterations you start at the clubhouse and finish nine holes at the clubhouse. The interesting and really cool thing about it is also all the green to tee commutes are still pretty tight or as tight as the course is in its usual sequence!
