OK, so now I feel like a complete dick that I have gotten you to pull out the topo and spend time calculating the elevation changes. Let me just say that from the 7th green through to the finish of the round I felt like I was primarily walking uphill. Obviously, not every shot/hole was uphill, but most have an uphill element to them... as do the walks between holes and between shots. You obviously like to route holes from one high spot to another. Take the first hole at Cape Kidnappers, for example. It's a great hole. The tee shot plays to a hilltop landing area, with a second shot to a hilltop green. But, in between the tee box and the fairway landing area you have to walk down into a valley then climb back out of it. After the second shot, the same thing... down into a valley then climb back out. If you compare the elevations of the playing areas on a topo it looks fairly level, but there is a lot of huffing and puffing on that hole.
When I reached the 14th at Streamsong Blue and looked up at that green on top of the hill I thought, "Man, do I really have to climb up there."
Michael:
There's no need to feel like a dick. I'm accepting your comments at face value, and trying to figure out how much uphill is too much for you.
I've heard the same criticism at a couple of my courses in the past. Sometimes it's a function of the land and how hilly it is. I think the fact that it was your second 18 holes of the day, that you walked up to the first tee, and that the sand on site is pretty soft and shifty, all contributed to your difficulty. It must have gotten in your head by the time you got to #14 tee, if you looked at that hole (all of 15 feet uphill in 520 yards) and found it so daunting.
You are right that I often route holes across the land from ridge to ridge to ridge, with valleys in between. That's the way Pete Dye showed me how to route holes when he was working on the plan for The Honors Course, the first summer I worked for him. I pulled Pete's drawing out on Wednesday to show one of my young associates the same thing for our routing book. It's primarily for drainage, that way the big surface flows are not going across the landing areas.
But, I did do this routing in concert with Bill Coore, and several of the most uphill holes are from his original 18-hole plan, so I don't think this one is the best example of how I always mess up the routing for walkability.
P.S. I hope Chris J. gets a bridge built for the tenth at Dismal River before you get there to review it!
P.S. to Bryan: I think Pacific Dunes is generally flatter than Streamsong, or at least the holes right along the coast are. Also, the walking is less sandy. Loose sand in Bandon just blows away ... many of the walking paths were built with gravel to make them less taxing.