John and I are admirers of the Planatation course at Kapalua. In part, I got married there to the best (and most tolerant) girl, but not withstanding those minor distractions, we thought the design of the course was of great exception.We sent our post in this site to the architects and have received two very kind letters back, which we thought we would share. Bebn Crenshaw wrote, "We decided to provide as many options as we could, given the harsh nature of elevation change and prevailing winds. Without such an array of avenues, the course would place extreme burden on the lesser skill. The scale was enormous, and therefore the features are wider than usual."Bill Coore wrote, "Regarding your specific question about the size of the fairways and greens, the answer would be yes, that even if the course were for a private club, we feel the playing areas would need to be expansive... As you noted in your letter,it was less than an ideal site. ... as to how the course traversed the uphill portions of the site. It was an interesting process trying to determine in advance how holes might be played where a proficient player could reasonably expect nearly four hundred yard tee shots in one instance and barely two hundred yard ones in another.By no means do we claim to have done everything right, especially given the difficulty of the site and the highly unusual results to golf shots it would yield. It was a site that could not help but produce a golf course where the extraordinary would become ordinary."We certainly think they did absolutely everything right as you can tell from our glowing write-up. Just how good is it? It beats Muirfield in Scotland on a hole by hole basis:1. Kapalua 1 up2. even3. Muirfield 1 up4. Muirfield 2 up5. M 1 up6. even7. K 1 up8. even9. M 1 up10. M 1 up11. even12. even13. M 1 up14. even15. even16. even17. Kap 1 up (but its close)18. Kap 2 upThe archtects are far too modest. The Plantation Course is a great, great course and deserves many a visit.