Paul - in truth, the golf that day was really a lot of fun for me. But also in truth, it was fun precisely because of the 'architecture'. I put that in quotes because I mean it in the simplest way, i.e. not the nuance/detail of whether or not or to what degree the replica holes matched the originals, or how well those holes suited the land, or whether the strategic elements/choices were ever-present in the most interesting ways; but simply in terms of what the architect provided the golfer with: the shots he asked for/suggested, the trouble he put in the way, the variety of hole lengths etc. And, for me, because I am not a well travelled golfer, I had never seen (and have yet to see) a fairway as wide as the double fairway ala the 18th at The Old Course (nor have I ever hit and then putted on a green that big); and I have never had more trouble getting out of a fairway bunker than I did from the Church Pews ala Oakmont; and I've never played a shorter Par 3 to a smaller green than the Postage Stamp; or seen as scrubby/wild/sandy areas as on the "Pine Valley' holes; and as reachable Par 5s go, the 13th at Augusta is a darn good one, and this was as close as I'm ever going to get to that. It was fun to play those golf holes. And the course, if I remember, was in good condition and it was dry (it drains well, I assume), and somehow the architect -- Ron Garl -- made everything seem to fit together very nicely; if he had to move a lot of earth, I couldn't see it. (Walking it would've been tough, if a cart wasn't included in my 'membership -- the walks between holes were long). The price is prohibitively high for me, and I only played it once. But I would play it again, because it was fun in all the kinds of architecture it presented....and for a day I could pretend to stroll down a fairway in Georgia. Luckily for me, I have no real image/sense of what that would actually be like to compare it with, as so I had no complaints. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, I guess.
Best
Peter