Played yesterday. Rather than a hole by hole thought I'd post some broad takeaways
1 it's a serene place that is very quiet and expansive. The holes don't interact and each is isolated. The 2 lakes are old and beautiful but only come into play once. That said there is quite a bit of wetland.
2 the property is flat out dramatic. Large hills and slopes that allow drives to bound forward or sideways. My son is playing a jr event at midpines which I always thought of as reasonably hilly for the sand hills (In the southern pines zip code for example maybe a bit flatter) -- Dormie is massively hillier and slopier than these.
3 the ground game can truly be and must be played at Dormie. The long par 4 holes in particular are lightly hunkered and require bounce ins etc. That said the course isn't at all monotonous in this respect. There a many holes (par3s 9 and12, 17, 3) where a ball flown in will generally perform better. All in all the turf quality is outstanding and the greens very firm. A pleasure to hit, pitch, and putt from.
4. The tees you play are huge at Dormie because of the dramatic hills. If one is too far back holes like 8 and 10 are missed out on as they were ade to ave a drive hit on the right line w the right power bound into perfect location and those not to suffer. Too far back and all this is missed. Think 10 at shinnecock for example.
5. The side hazards really come into play due to the slopes. Staying in the short grass is big here as i found the scruffy stuff to be quite penal that said it was easy to find your ball and try to play it I wonder if #2 will work the same given the nature of that property?
6 terrific greens that are hard to put in a box. Many lay flat to the land and run away like 10, 11, and 13 and tend to be large with few large contours while others are smaller and more sharply contoured like 3, 9, 15, and 17. Approaches and putts need to be carefully considered on each hole because your mind set has to change.
7 all in all I find Dormie to be very close in quality to friars head. Hope it can figure out how to survive and not be ruined.