Tommy,
I was lucky enough to be able to play Braemar last week during their sneak peak.
I had only played 9 holes at Braemar (the "other" 9) when I first moved to Minnesota and had no knowledge of the existing course, other than it looked like a 1,000 other local park district courses across the country.
My favorite public course in town is Keller GC, which Rich did a wonderful job renovating 3 or 4 years ago now. As I discussed with Rich, in the early stages of this project I remember the city of Edina debating essentially 4 different plans. Only one of them showed 27 holes being turned into 18, but on the plan there were a ton of really cool, bold, looking holes. I thought "that would be cool, but there is no way a park district is going to go for that." Shows you what I know as apparently it was the unanimous choice.
So, what went from a pretty course on a tight property turned into something with quite a bit of scale. And given the property's movement its a pretty cool setting. Lakes, prairies, woods...very "Minnesota."
The highlight of the course to me was the strength of the par-5's (5 of them), which all feature a ton of variety and strategic interest. #4 is a really cool hole with a split fairway decision on the second shot. Go low left and flirt with bunkers and you're rewarded with a wedge shot to a green that slopes right to left. Go high (which I did) you have a downhill pitch shot but the green slopes HARD away from you...impossible to keep it close to a front pin, but not a bad place if the pin is long? Fun stuff.
Other par-5's like the 6th are more "traditional" in nature but are very fun to play and sit perfectly on the natural grade of the land. But then there is the 11th, which is incredibly bold...playing on a massive ridge with an uphill skyline green at the end of a tall point.
My favorite par-4 was the 14th, with a great looking string of bunkers built into a natural ridge off the tee, and a green benched into a hillside.
The dominant feature on the property is a massive ~150-200 ft hill pretty much right in the center of the course. Many of the holes seem to play to and from that point. And the holes playing toward the hill are certainly aesthetically pleasing.
There is one par-3 which plays from the top of the hill all the way down to ("sea"?) level. It's quite the few from the top, although I think the drop might be too severely downhill? The hole has a cool green that falls away from the tee, which is neat to see.
Overall, I think Rich & Co. will have another (after Keller) local hit on their hands. Frankly, most of the public courses in town aren't very good (like the old Braemar) and Rich's thoughtful design sticks out. I am positive the local golfers will love it.