Anent the lost ball count: I didn't dislike the course because of losing balls. Those balls that I lost were largely because of poor shots that even as a 19-handicapper I should have played better, and that was certainly true of our other double-figure handicapper who was fighting a losing battle with his driver, duck-hooking and slicing big time. I don't recall us losing balls around the greens apart from the all-or-nothing 6th which we played as our first hole, and one particularly feeble approach shot from me which deserved its fate. I think it should be noted that I did not feel intimidated apart from the 14th tee. In fact on several holes I drove first simply to make sure we had a ball in play on the fairway (albeit well short of the ideal) so that the rest of our team members could go for the big shot. By and large it worked.
None of our team had any complaints about the rough in front of the tees and none said they found it forcing them to hit a higher ball than they would like to have hit. In fact the stuff never really entered our minds. As for the rectangular tees they don't feel rectangular because of the way they are set into the natural dunes. To have created free-form teeing grounds would have been much more invasive. As for six tees per hole they make a lot of sense as their area is small. The tees are charming and intimate and are certainly too small in area to sustain high volume play. To have created bigger tees would have involved wrecking dunes. Where we normally have a 3-tee system of white and yellow for men and red for women is fine, but I suspect the total area of teeing ground for the entire course will be much the same at Trump and at my own course at Wilmslow which is laid out on largely flat ground.
I am sorry so many opinions about the course have been clouded by personal feelings about Donald Trump. I have no particular view about him, never having spoken to him in my life. His speech at lunch was brief and remarkably lacking in pomposity. He was there to praise Martin Hawtree and his team. The tone of the whole event was set by Martin, not Trump. Those of you who have met Martin know he is charming, yet quite reserved, erudite, yet humble. Nothing organised by him was going to be ostentatious - it wasn't. Trump did not ask us to say what a world-beating course this may be. Instead, Martin asked us informally and individually what we thought and listened courteously to our replies. He made the point that this is still very early and clearly he expects to be making adjustments over the next few years. It was a sign of Martin's popularity that some of his former employees, now fully fledged as architects on their own two feet, returned to see for themselves what had been created - and they were free to say whatever they wished. There was no three-line whip.
I am glad I did not read this post before posting my photographs. My photographs are hardly flattering, taken in rain and poor light by a very average amateur photographer during the course of playing a round. But I am free to post them. There is no ban as there is at SFGC and some other prestigious US courses.
For all the criticism made on this site, mostly by people who have not yet played the course, it is not unplayable. Our team score was a gross 70, 2 under par. Of course the bulk of this score was achieved by our two low-handicappers, our 1-handicaopper in particular, but our two high handicappers were also able to make significant contributions. I know of one team which scored a gross 65. I don't know if it won.
I look forward to Robin and Adam's views. I expect them to be objective.