The course is dramatically better than what was there. Combining holes, cutting up holes, it was really well done. I hope they love it....
What are the changes? From a google aerial shot, it looks like the changes were on #6 (green in front of the creek), 7 (tee moved up in front of the lake), 9 (green moved up the hill), 10 (made longer and they now play to the old 11th green), 13 (old par 5 now split into two holes - a 3 and a 4). Did I miss anything else?
You more or less have it right, I think. Based on an aerial and the website (which has a scorecard and a few photos but no in-depth detail), I've obtained an educated guess on the changes. It now plays as a par 70 instead of a par 71.
Stylistically, all the tees are now square and all the bunkers are more free-form, as opposed to the generally round-type they were on the old layout. It looks more 2010 and less 1986.
The first five holes look more or less the same. I believe #1 is about 40 yards longer and #3 is about 15-20 yards shorter (I seem to recall the original could be played at 240 but they rarely put it back there).
#6 was changed to a par-four and the green moved to the other side of the creek.... I believe the original was a poor reverse copy of #13 at Augusta and was highly disliked.
#7 and #8 are more or less the same, although #8 has been stretched out to around 470 yards.
#9 was the hole Greg Norman wanted to blow up with dynamite. The green looks like it has been moved well above and left of where it was before, and really doesn't sit on the creek's edge like it did.
#10 is now a longish par-five with the creek all the way down the left. The old par-3 11th is gone.
#11 is the old #12 and looks to be relatively unchanged.
#12 is a new hole, an uphill par-3 which appears to be slightly redan-like although the website only has it playing about 170 yards, so it might be too short.
#13 is another new hole and replaces the old par-5 13th, another hole that apparently everyone hated. It is a gentle, uphill dogleg right around 380-ish and has been highly praised, from what I have read.
#14-18 are similar to the originals. #14 was the driveable hole; it looks like they've made it a little bit uphill and put a couple of strategic bunkers in between the fairway and the creek.
The water par-3 (#17) is now about 225 yards and the old 18th has been dragged out to 460-470.