Eric:
Thanks for sharing your pictures. As it turned out, I took zero photos this weekend, I was trying to get my brain around a construction sequence.
The problem with photos of the site is that the scale is so big that you can't focus on the actual golf hole very well. Your pictures of #5 and #6 and #13 are probably the best of the bunch as far as giving a sense of it. #5 plays over a valley that's probably 30 feet deep to a green in a 3/4 bowl on the far ridge. But your picture of #3 that you posted earlier fails to capture the scale -- that's a 175- to 200-yard par-3, and the shadowy thing to the right is a blowout that's about 20 feet deep.
I suspect Chris can't get enough of this thread, but for me it is now about getting to work. We are hoping to start up some work in early August. We have enough water for +/- ten acres of grassing, and instead of just building one or two holes, we are going to try and build 5-7 approaches and greens while I've got the talented guys available to do it -- I'm afraid they may be more spread out next spring. So, we will start with the par-5 tenth and the par-3 eleventh, and then do 13-14-15, and maybe 16 and 17.
I love the high loop early in the round, but I think my favorite stretch of holes right now is 13-14-15. Thirteen is a big dogleg with the tee shot over a small ravine and the second shot playing down to a plateau green with the river bluff in the background (Eric's picture with the cow is looking down the second shot from the forward tee). That green may be one we can leave entirely alone, it's slightly crowned and wrinkly.
The fourteenth and fifteenth were two of the last holes we found on the property. Fourteen plays diagonally up across a valley, with small hills pinching the landing area first right and then left, and then another big hill just at the right front of the green, which we will hollow out to make into more of a punchbowl ... it's a big like a diagonal Alps hole, you can see the green from the tee, but you could be blocked out from view if your drive is very much to either side of center. Then #15 plays back down parallel to 14, a drivable par-4 with an approach full of moguls and a very small raised green that will make for a scary wedge shot.
The two finishing holes are still spectacular, but we will only do a little earthwork in those fairways this year, and probably not get back to build the greens until next spring. I might build #17 green if we think we have plenty of time to finish and grass it ... not much to do on that one, either, other than take a little bit of the tilt out of it.
Someone asked earlier how many greens there were where we might not do any shaping at all. In thirty courses total, I've only built maybe half a dozen greens like that. I could probably double my lifetime total here if I wanted to, but the only ones I'm pretty sure I will leave alone are the short par-4 fourth, and the thirteenth as mentioned above. #2 and #3 and #6 and #10 and #11 and #18 are other possibilities, but most of them are fairly flat and I suspect we will add a wrinkle or two before we are through with them. #5 is essentially there, too, but the slopes are big and broad and there probably isn't enough flat space in the bowl yet.