Carl was a bit of a legend among many in the Golf Club Atlas circle, having won the Golf Digest armchair architect contest, but he was just about the least pretentious person I think I've ever met. We had to make him talk that recognition and experience (but I do think he enjoyed sharing all the details). Spending time with Tom Doak was definitely a core memory for him.
Yes, condolences to Carl's family. He was a very nice fellow, and got on well with all of the youngsters on my crew.
He spent several days with us in Mexico on the site for the Bay of Dreams during the early part of construction. It wasn't really possible to use the design for his hole in every detail, because the terrain we had for a long par-5 didn't fit, but we worked together to plan around that. And then six months later, a new investor came in and decided they were going to put houses where Carl's hole [and three others] were laid out, and I had to change the routing to accommodate their wishes.
With bad karma like that, it's no wonder the course struggled and closed after only a few months of play, due to the recession of 2008 combined with the drug cartel wars which scared off potential homebuyers in that part of Baja.