Shooter,
Pelican Marsh, Bay Colony were routed in the office, little regard given to first hand site visits, mostly responding to site constraints as depicted on the map. Residential layout along golf course was very important to WCI, so that had some impact on routing. The first nine of both courses is what I worked on during construction. The other nines of both courses were constructed after I left von Hagge. My understanding was that the budgets for the second nines were considerably less than the first nines.
I never felt the last six holes were cramped at HideOut, but it was an awkward piece to work with. On my first site visit, the engineer, a great engineer named Emilio Robau, from RWA, in Naples, took me out to the wetlands that you cross going from #17 to #18 and encouraged me to travel through there because of the magnificent cypress trees there. Once I knew we could rout circulation through the wetland it made the routing work better on that side.
The key to the routing at HideOut was not returning to the clubhouse after nine holes. Returning nines typically compromise the routing, the land, and therefore the overall experience.