Jerry:
I concur with much of what you added. Don't know if you have played that many Engh designs but the totality of what you find at Lakota Canyon Ranch and Pradera does exceed what I found on my visit to Blackstone.
You see that's not a knock on Blackstone but it does raise some flags for me because Engh needs to move beyond certain tendencies that seem to keep coming up on different courses (e.g. the containment mounding by the greens is just one pet peeve that I have).
Jerry, when you say the greens are "great" at Blackstone I have to say I was not that wowed by many of them. In a number of instances you certainly get a few which are really outstanding -- the par-5 9th being one -- the par-3's on the inner half are all first rate. There are also a few others -- but there were nearly just as many that were fairly pedestrian -- the 18th hole -- both in tee, approach and green was quite ordinary in its overall character.
I still would recommend Blackstone for people to play but if they are an Engh fan and have played Lakota, Pradera and even Black Rock they may be in for just a tad of a letdown.
Kirk:
Blackstone is very capable in being walked. The layout is not on the same terrain as the flat layout called Sanctuary in Colorado.
Doug:
Good point -- Verrado is a match in my mind with Blackstone. The same situation applies -- you have superlative holes at both but the sheer totality and consistency of the routing and hole qualities are not present for the entire duration of the round.
Be interested in your comments on the 18th at Verrado -- very interesting choke point when the fairway falls off to the botton tier with the H20 pinching in from the right.