Jason,
No problem.
Combined greens? That's one of those "Ode to the Old Course" things we architects like to do every so often. Given that those greens were on the worst part of the property, with the casino view, road, etc., I felt like if we gave it something a bit different, it might distract. Sort of a conversation piece. The problem is we are so afraid of putting them as close as they were at TOC, the little connector isn't really convincing. Also, 6 is a version of my "ultra long" green, and the hope is the pin is back, then on 1 its left or front.
One of the reasons I beleive we won the job over RTJII and others (aside from Notah, of course) was that he and I really spoke about the land, and its three sections and characteristics. We really did know it, which was important to them.
The CH was sort of set, both by the hill, and electric connections and jurisdictions (move it a bit west and electric rates would have doubled) A few other competitors weren't aware of that fact, and placed it about where the 6/1 green sits now, which would have set up a west finishing golf cousre into the sun. We felt that most golfers would also prefer the trees, so we started through the woods on 1 for a first impression (even though it opens up after) and saved both the treed areas and the NS orientation (easier to play than in a cross wind) for later in the round.
As to bent vs Zoysia, this was a low budget course, built for under $4M. The extra Mil for Zoyzia was out of the question, and the seeded choices came down to between rye, bent and low mow blue. We consulted with the late Stan George over at PD, among others, and it was clear that Rye is a constant reseeding challenge, low mow blue looked terrible wherever it had been used in the area, and we had success with bent at Sand Creek a few years earlier. Bent it was, even if we would have preferred Zoysia.