Yeah...I don't remember the rationale, but they flipped two mini-loops...4-5-6 with 7-8-9.
I always thought the 9th as the long, difficult par 4 matched well against the 18th as a long difficult par 4. There are a lot of cool, shorter holes in the other 16 and nobody has ever thought of Cricket as a long difficult course so I don't know if minimizing the pain at the end of each nine was a goal, but it did.
I also played a couple weeks ago for the first time post renostation...after having played a great number of rounds before. I think it's extremely good. I was afraid it would feel naked with so many trees removed and it just doesn't. The bunkers all seem to be in the right place (because they caught so many of my shots) and the conditioning is what could be called too good. You do lose some of the little nuances others have mentioned earlier. But...I suspect...they return with time.