The first result: on a fine, gusty morning in metro Detroit, I lost to Ari Techner when he sunk a four-footer on the last green at Meadowbrook to beat me, 1-up.
It was a really good match: we both played pretty well, except for a couple of holes we totally threw away. I got to 2-up early with a net birdie on #1 and a wedge to 3 feet on #3; I promptly handed back the par-5 4th, and even with another birdie at the 6th, we were back to all square at the turn. Ari got to 2-up after 14, but I parred both 15 and 16 with strokes in hand, and we were back to all square. A great chip through the Biarritz swale at the 17th for a tap-in birdie put Ari back on top to stay.
I thought Meadowbrook was everything it's been advertised to be -- a really fun place to play with some pretty wild old-school features. It helped that there were several shortish par-4 holes to balance the long ones.
That a lot of those wild features are actually new additions is quite remarkable. Most redesign projects tend to be conservative in design, because clubs are afraid to lose their existing members by making too many changes; Meadowbrook gave Andy Staples a green light to go for something better, and attracted way more new members than the losses they suffered as a result.