I wonder if EH in its conception from the gorgeous land parcel it was, and the dream in Mr Lang's mind, became a series of too many cooks stirring the pot, due to all of its idealism. In that I mean that a gentleman like Ron Whitten, and an alliance with Dr. Hurdzan and his associate Fry, got carried away by their own idealism to build that once in a lifetime course on a great piece of land and hit all the ideal themes, including the fatal flaw (IMHO) the notion of also being grand enough to host a USGA Open. The ideal of gently laying a course of architectural brilliance on a nearly undisturbed topography is in deed an 'ideal'. In practicality, even in the sand hills, when the terrain is just a tad too varied and severe in places, it forces quirky golf. Combine that with the near antithesis of Dr Hurdzan the 'man who wrote the book' on golf course architecture as a construction manual, and those two ideals of a course lightly tread upon the lovely land, and the competence to 'construct' a golf course, seems out of natural order. Add to Whitten and Hurdzan's golf course architecture knowledge, Mr Lang's ideals and goals, and in a way, it is a case of too much in the recipe and somethiing fails in the execution.
I strongly feel that #2 and #10 were more the result of the 'armchair architect's' overthoughtout passion that would come out in the annual armchair architect contest, where brilliant but overthought elaborate design ideas go too far and the result is quirk and extreme but not really desirable playing qualities in the actual game played in reality. That turtle top green from mostly blind LZs (except the far left long) yet even if not blind, too small of a turtle top was dopey, IMHO. Memorable? Yes. The same with #10. An armchair architects wet dream, but what was there to play in reality was too quirky and over the top. It was made hard by the length to address the conventional wisdom of length needed to challenge the top players, and too severe of terrain and too much to work with for the armchair architect, brainstorm.
At this point I don't think it is telling tales out of school to say that one individual involved with the construction could see it was becoming a 'frankenstein monster' in severity and beyond good golf sense, by a person who is reported to have among the best and proven 'good golf sense'. That person reportedly didn't want the work he was involved with to be attributed to him. For who that person is, that says pretty much all I needed to know from the git-go.
All this worked against Mr Lang's interests, IMHO. In making minimalism for minimalisms sake, and trying to cook too much ideal like a great natural course on a great piece of land + a top USGA type competition venue, is stirring in too much idealism.