Regarding those mounds on #2 at french Lick. When I saw those conical mounds in Ran's review of the Greenbrier course i could not help but think of the mounds at the Dye course. Ran wrote that Raynor basically had large piles of rock there and instead of transporting them just grassed them over. Well, at French Lick I read in a Dye interview that those were originally just piles of dirt that were put there (and I ultimately going to be moved and used elsewhere), but he just kind of liked the way they looked there and decided to grass them and add bunkers on top. So I ask you this, why does everyone here think these mounds are a golf design crime, yet Raynor leaving the mounds at the Grienbrier are surely seen as an interesting quirk? And remember, Raynor and MacDonald are Dye's FAVOURITE golf builders, so surely he is aware of these types of features they built. Why is he not allowed to do it? And to be perfectly fair, the conical mounds at Greenbrier probably look even sillier than the Dye mounds.
To be clear, I have not played either courses. From Nick's pictures French Lick does seem like it has a lot of interesting holes. I admit, the constant of having a ravine to contend with on one side of the hole is probably pretty draining.
What I found interesting in seeing Nick's two photo tours of Crooked Stick and French Lick is not at how different they are (and yes, they are), but in a way, how similar they are. There are a lot of elements and features of these two courses that I think are more similar than you might expect. Or maybe I am crazy