Johto Village has some very fine reviews up of Creekside and Lakeside. There were several points that I found really interesting.
Thanks for the props. It was a wonderful experience to play both courses. On my ratings, I do feel that Lakeside is definitely a better course. I know that may sound confusing considering I gave them both a 4.5, but Creekside is much closer to a 4.25 for me and Lakeside is closer to a 4.75. But I had my reasons for rounding where I did.
I was struck by how much he pumped up the closing holes of Creekside. I understand the love for 16, but found 17 and 18 a bit underwhelming.
From the short tees I could see both 17 and 18 being very boring, but from the long tees hole 18 is just an amazing hole. Really a great challenge, especially if there is wind. Hole 18 from the shorts looked to be a lot easier.
Speaking of 15s, I had had a similar reaction to 15 Lakeside: a truly special hole that doesn't seem to get talked about enough. I was glad to see him single it out as a transcendent hole.
Hole 15 at Lakeside was truly an amazing hole, as was hole 15 at Creekside. Long doesn't always mean good, and short holes can be amazing. Hole 15 at Creekside really worked for me and hole 15 at Lakeside was a perfect example of an option hole working really well.
I disagree with the idea that Creekside has less "average" holes than Lakeside. I felt the opposite, that it was Lakeside that maintained a better level of consistency. Several of the shorter holes Johto didn't like seemed to me to be well-calculated to break things up from the memorable behemoths. But I also predominantly played from the short tees (while often having a look from the blues, and playing some of the more interesting holes from the blues as well), so perhaps that's what accounts for the difference of opinion.
Yeah, keep in mind my perspective was from the long tees. I waited about two weeks to review the courses after reviewing the videos I took, pictures, etc and I just couldn't shake the idea in my mind that Lakeside had too many average holes. HOWEVER, I gave the course a 4.5 so obviously the good outweighed the average.
I look forward to seeing what he has to say about Trey Ranch.
I am still sifting through my pictures and notes on these courses. Should have the reviews up soon. The Trey courses have a lot going for them for sure.
I actually originally planned on rating Creekside a 3.5 (blasphemy, I know) and Lakeside a 4.5 - after looking at my pictures again I realized I was being too hard on Creekside as I was really soured by holes 7 through 10. But in the end I realized the course was really great and really only had one major design flaw (hole 10).
