Had the opportunity to visit Cedar Rapids today. What a treat!
Jason,
Glad you made it down there. Any more details? Likes/dislikes?
Pat - thanks for the question. I meant to elaborate but did not have the time during the original post. I can't really comment on the changes but the largely finished product is very good.
I thought it was a cool piece of property. There are big hills near the clubhouse and flat low lying land on the North and Northeast portions of the property. I am no Donald Ross expert but I have noticed his courses tend to have what I call a fan shaped routing with each nine fanning across the property, here in a folded counterclockwise direction. Such routings create continuous variety in hole directions and, in this case, allow the player to alternate between hilly and flat landscapes on both nines.
This course features unique uses of the existing landforms - particularly with the second which climbs a hill, turns left and then drops a huge amount (maybe 50 feet?) to the green. I also really liked the 10th which plays as a long downhill version of the 10th at Riviera where the player wants to hit it at the green but knows he should steer wide to have the best angle of approach.
The par 5's have terrific variety with the 9th using slope as a hazard that must be climbed for a short approach and the very long 15th which uses a creek down the right that crosses at an angle in front of a green. The par 3's show similar variety from a short iron to a full three wood - each to a unique green.
A more lasting impression comes from the flat holes, where Ross had much less to work with. Nonetheless, interesting use of the creek, unique artificially built up greens and variety in hole presentations infuse each of those holes with plenty of interest.
The one clunker of a hole from the blue tees we played was the 6th a hole of about 430 yards with a creek straight across the fairway starting at about 230 from the tee and requiring a 270 yard carry to cross. They label the hole as a par five, which I suppose is correct but the hole seems like it would be much more engaging from the back tee at about a 490 yard par 5. That tee could create some safety issues with the prior green although I would think in most cases the lead group would tee off before the group behind got there and expecting some common sense from players at a private club seems to me a reasonable expectation.
Vaughn and Steve are fabulous hosts and we had 74 degrees in November with a light south breeze. You cannot ask for a better day than that.