Just watching the "Mother Lover" video from SAturday Night Live and I thought of this thread.
A friend played this "new" course last weekend. I was a bit surprised to learn that essentially the previous routing remains in tact. I thought they had completely scrapped the course and started with a blank canvas. The par and direction of each hole is the same and it was similar enough that he had a comfort level on his tee shots unlike he usually experiences on a course for the first time.
This isn't to imply that the holes are exactly the same. He said one of the biggest difference has taken place with some mounding and undulations that didn't exist before. Whereas the front nine before offered a level lie in almost all cases, there are now many places that leave an uneven lie. The greens are also completely redone and some are much larger with more movement.
Still, he felt that the visual upgrades were more prevalent than the architectural upgrades. My friend has been on many of my trips and seen some outstanding courses. While he isn't necessarily the architecture junkie I am, he does pay attention. He was paired with another golfer he had not previously met. Through the course of conversation, it came up that their partner had played Bandon, Kohler, Sand Hills, etc. Some fairly comparable experiences to my friend. The two well-traveled golfers agreed that the course was a nice, upscale public addition for the greater Memphis area, but one that probably wouldn't warrant a trip to see for anyone that wasn't already going to be in the area. He thought the price point of $70 was appropriate, but we are both interested to see if they can draw significant play at that price point at this location (a little bit of a drive for most that live in the greater Memphis area) in this economy.
One of the final thoughts from my friend on the phone this evening was "Not sure where exactly they spent all that money."