My initial post only focused on reasons why it might not get much discussion here. After playing it again on Friday afternoon, it seems appropriate to mention some of the reasons it deserves more discussion.
* The opening hole is one of the finest I know of. A conservative player can navigate it quite easily, but the obvious benefit of challenging the bunkers off the tee leads to a lot of overzealous tee shots.
* There may not be a three hole stretch in the world that provides a test as comprehensive as the stretch from 5-7. It's a stretch that asks the player to work the ball both ways with driver, long irons, middle irons, and short irons. It also demands a well-played wedge shot and recovery possibilities around those three greens offer a huge variety of difficult scenarios.
* On that note, Wolf Run may be a course full of one-of-a-kind holes, but the conventional 5th might be the best of the bunch. A big par 4 played over the crest of a hill before falling hard on the way down to the green, the bunkers on the hillside off the tee ask for a left-to-right tee shot before the dramatic approach that practically begs for a draw to be run in from the right, up the slope on the back of the green, and fed down to the day's hole location. It's as outstanding as it is elegant and embodies the course's spirit of fun in the face of extreme difficulty.
* As others have noted, the variety in the par 3s is superb. One of the things that sticks out to me is that each of them require a player to gauge how his ball will bounce and run after landing. The ridge that bisects the second green can be used to work the ball toward pin positions. The 6th plays as a true redan from just 150 yards or so. 13, with its 200+ yard shot over the ravine, demands a shot that lands as close to the fronting left bunker as possible in order to use the left-to-right slope to feed the ball toward the pin without rolling all the way through and down the rear swale. And the 16th, even with just a flip wedge, will still feed a ball hard from the right edge of the green to the left portion.
* On the subject of feeding balls toward holes, one of the things that makes Wolf Run so unusual is that it's a target-oriented parkland course that nonetheless demands players choose between multiple options on many shots while accurately gauging how the ball will roll when it lands. Part of the credit for that goes to Smyers, as he built a course that consistently features sloped landing areas in both fairways and on greens. But part of the credit also should go to superintendent Nate Fair, a turf genius who consistently presents the fastest, tightest, and firmest bentgrass surfaces I've ever seen.
* I also love the course's ebb and flow. The front 9 is a set of unrelenting holes that all provide reasonable difficulty and test every facet of a player's game without ever really getting over the top. The back nine has more of a variety in scoring chances. 10 gives a realistic birdie chance and probably stands as the least dangerous hole out there, and 11 isn't a particularly tough hole by Wolf Run standards. Beginning on 12, the course presents one of the toughest four hole stretches I've ever seen. Survive that stretch and you have a chance to get a few strokes back on 16-18, though peril lurks on poorly played shots. It may not be a course that makes you want to run back to the first tee when you walk off the 18th green. But after lunch and a drink? Yep, I'm always pretty excited to head back out and take another crack at some of those shots.