Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 - Player Comments about Dead Lands Golf Course

Nice desert course with colorful mountains, plenty of high hills and high grass, deep rough, bushes and sparsely-planted trees with large branches to watch for, and quite tough with a lot of blind shots, but also with some totally unreal camera views (often going... through the hills to see the holes behind !).
The opening par-4 hole will test you right away with a blind shot over high rough with a small hill on the left of the fairway and a big bunker in the middle (with a green, slightly to the left), but when you will reach the right dogleg par-4 2nd, you will face a dilemma : with a small fairway on the left at the bottom of a big hill in the middle, you will be tempted to go that way, especially if you look at the strange camera view going... through the hill (!), but it is impossible to hit your second shot over ; instead, you should hit your blind tee shot over the hill on the right to land onto the fairway behind, if you want to have a clear view of the green thereafter !
The par-3 3rd hole is pretty, but tough, with a blind tee shot over another high hill and a bunker in front of the green, and is followed by two par-4 left doglegs, with the picturesque 4th hole, nicer with a blind tee shot between high hills (covered with deep rough, high grass, bushes and a few trees) than the 5th, trickier with a big hill on the middle and a choice of two fairways, with the left one leaving you with a shorter second shot to the green.
The right dogleg par-5 6th hole will provide you with a big “relief” (in a way...) with no hills to look at, but just a wide fairway and a very long (and tough) second over a dry riverbed, trees and rough to reach the green.
As you face the par-3 7th hole, you will have a big shock seeing that hill, seemingly impossible to fly over with your tee shot, but you... will make it and discover a gorgeous panoramic view behind as your ball lands onto the green.
As a “reward”, the left dogleg par-4 8th hole, with a big branch to watch for in front of the tee box, is relatively easy, unlike the very challenging par-5 9th, a left dogleg around a small hill, quite hard to figure out from the tee box, with so many trees, bushes and deep rough, and with a smaller fairway, halfway, if you choose to lay up instead of trying to reach the green, surrounded by sand.
The back 9 starts with another par-5, the very pretty right dogleg 10th hole, with a steeply-uphill tee shot, and a blind approach shot, way downhill to the green, with another gorgeous panoramic view of the valley, and continues with, yet, another par-5, the right dogleg-5 11th hole, with a blind second shot around (or above) a high hill toward the green.
The par-3 12th hole is beautiful with a green set on a high circular plateau (with a few trees below), just like the straight par-4 13th, with a tee shot over high rough, trees and with an elongated bunker, midway on the right, and a green, guarded by a few more bunkers.
On the long (almost 645 yards) right dogleg par-5 14th hole, with an elongated big hill in the middle and, the camera showing you the way to the right, you should... forget about it, and hit your tee shot to the left to have a better (and short) second shot, before trying to reach the green on your 3rd shot through trees and high rough.
Unfortunately for all of us, the left dogleg par-4 15th hole is one of the toughest (and most unreal) on this course, with a blind tee shot over trees, and a very narrow fairway with a big canyon on the left and a very high hill all along on the right, and a... tiny green, surrounded by plenty of bushes !
On the straight par-5 16th hole, you will need to hit a perfect tee shot to fly over a huge hill across the fairway halfway, before discovering another wide fairway below and between two high hills, followed by a long approach shot to reach the slightly-uphill green.
Finally, after the very scenic and uphill par-3 17th hole, similar to the 12th, with sand all around the green, your "exhausting" round will end on the right dogleg par-4 18th hole, with a big bunker in the left corner to watch for, and a slightly-elevated green.
This is, apparently, the only course, designed by Jen, and I must say that, if scenery-wise, it is superb (with a great variety of trees, sparsely-planted bushes and deep rough), it is also a “real” fantasy one, mixing great holes with unreal ones, which is not to everyone's taste.
But, despite my 4-over-par score (78 in novice mode !), I will keep this course as it is quite challenging (and very different !) and you should give it a try (at least in practice) to discover this very promising and talented lady designer (and one of the very few, unfortunately...).