Wonderful to hear that you had an agreeable visit, Ira.
Like you, I recently visited the club for the first time, but lucked a 36-hole day that was warm and the sun shining.
After the first round, I thought the course was fun, varied, tough in spots and with a collection of wonderful greensites. After the second round, I knew it was one of my favourite courses ever and I was already wondering when I might make it back.
The opening hole is a superb "executive summary" of what's to come. Driving over that ridge to start the round sums up well what Elie is all about.
If I were to try to pick my standout holes, 1-6, 7-12 and 13-18 all come to mind!
The greens (surfaces and complexes) particularly have stayed in my head. They are wild in places, but not wild in the way that I think any modern architect would make greens wild. For instance the fold in the 3rd green that runs front-centre to back-right, the front-to-back step at the 6th, the enlarged kidney benched fairly brutally into the hill at the 13th.
At one stage I called it "holiday golf" and Mark Pearce glassed me, but what I meant is that it was just such a relentlessly fun course to play with challenges that called for creative solutions, even when the going got tough.
To my mind, it's a soul brother to the likes of National Golf Links, Barnbougle Dunes and Brora -- and I can really think of no greater compliment than that.