As a "wee Lad" in Chicago, about 1967-8, my love of architecture was insired by two Golf Digest articles, one by HWWind, and the other by Gary Player.
The Wind article was superior, and I remember lots of it even though I have lost the copy of it I had. The Player article had some quirk about it, including the assertion that the fairway should widen out at 250-300 yards (probably 300-350 today) since the long player who hits 5% off line goes farther astray than the short player who hits 5% off line. I saw in GW that Mickelson believes fairways can stay the same width throughout the hole, but Player is still the only one advocating widening them for the better player that I can recall.
Another thing he said, was that he liked one "giveaway" par 5, reachable by just about all good competitors, one true 3 shot par 3, and two "tweaners" that had special demands. That always stuck with me.
It was "refined in my mind" by Larry Nelson, one of the tours shorter hitters, but "sneaky long" nonetheless, who favored one of the tweaners with a forced carry, like Augusta 15, but the other with a narrow "run up ramp" of some kind, or possibly an offset green allowing either a direct carry or creative "bank shot." He felt this gave the shorter fellow with some shotmaking ability a way to compete with the longer hitters who could lace a 1 iron to a target and make it stick.
Thus, a design formula was born,
and it's one I usually hold to pretty closely whenever possible. However, after seeing the 642 yard par 5 at Southern Hills hit repeatedly in two shots last year - sometimes with long irons - I have to sort of ignore reality in thinking that my 600 yard par 5 holes represent true 3 shot holes if the pros ever show up.
At a place where very good amateurs will show up - Colbert Hills - three of the four par 5 holes exceed 600 yards. I believe all have been reached in two in the courses two year existence. They are considering lengthening 16 - at only 545 up a hill. At one time, Mr. Colbert thought it would be his equivalent of 15 at Muirfield Village, the "giveaway par 5" at a great place in the round. New conventional wisdom is.....too easy!
As a designer of primarily public courses, I usually favor making the true 3 shot hole the first one on each nine, and the reachable one the latter, or possibly even emulate Augusta, where the reachers are both on the back nine, as a practical consideration to speed of play. Waiting for a bunch of duffers in front of you who have a 2% chance of actully getting there only to see them duff the shot is frustrating for the golfer, and tough on the owner's bottom line.