I played the course on 11/1/07 and here are my thoughts:
It is certainly the most walkable desert course I have ever played and I think the experience is drastically affected by their rule to prohibit walking. They need to at least offer the ability to walk and I would love to see them re-institute a caddy program there. You can't play up the classical/traditional nature of the course and then prohibit walking.
The course plays to 6428 yds, 70.3, 128 from the tips. I enjoyed the parkland feel and it was a perfect fit for my playing partners who were all higher handicap players (15-30) and could keep the ball in play without any problem. The fairways can be quite narrow but the rough was not overly penal. I wish more desert courses offered that playability but I can only guess that the prohibitive cost of irrigation prevents that from happening.
The greens did have some good movement in them and I would like to see them play at faster speeds. I have a feeling that the course might surprise some players who tried to score on it under tournament conditions. The day I played the greens were brutally slow, but even then the slope of the greens still came into play.
I am not sure what holes were affected by the addition of housing complexes but I have a feeling 1 & 10 may have been two of the holes. If I have one major criticism, it was the holes did not vary enough in length. I played from the white tees and hit driver/wedge on a number of holes. There are 10 par 4's on the course between 306 yds and 386 yds. To be fair, they vary greatly in design but given the course set-up you could hit driver and take most of the danger out of play.
I thought Forrest did a great job on the bunkers which are beautiful. The bunkering is the strongest aspect of the course in my mind. Check out these links for photos:
http://www.azbiltmoregc.com/course-adobe.cfmhttp://arizona.twoguyswhogolf.com/reviews/azbiltmoreadobe.htmlHoles of note:
#7 was my favorite hole. 363 yds from the tips, bunkers pinch in the fairway on the right at 220yds and the fairway wraps around them at an angle from the tee. A tree guards the front left portion of the green making the best approach from the right (which leads you to try and carry the bunkers).
#13 - Par 4 of 399 yds from the tips. High fade required off the tee but the green was the attraction here. Almost looks like a clover leaf green with some great pin positions.
18 looked like a nice finishing hole but unfortunately I played twilight and it was pitch black by the time I arrived at the green.
Final conclusion - I'd play it again and would look forward to it. You can't beat the location which is central to most Phoenix hotels and was right across the street from the Ritz Carlton where I was staying. The design, while it has been tweaked by the development, still shows signs of greatness. The conditioning could have been better (especially the speed of the greens) and that detracted from the experience (along with the cart-path only rule). I would take advantage of the $56 twilight rate, play it from the tips and leave the driver in the bag most of the time just to mix up my approach shots. Sometimes I find I have more fun on an older course like this when I leave the driver at home.
One quick observation - Is there anything cooler than hitting a tee shot at dusk, with no way of watching the ball off the club, but just relying on the feel that swing/hit gives you on contact and then finding it right where you expect it to be?