Have a look into our routing process for Old Sawmill Golf Club in South Carolina. We found over 146 (!!) holes on the vast property but ultimately needed to pare it down and link the holes together to make one cohesive, walkable design.
Things that had our minds spinning were: prevailing wind direction (at certain times of the year), sun angle and sunrise vs. sunset locations, water and creeks and how they came into play, downhill holes vs. uphill vs. dogleg rights vs. lefts, the flow of golf holes with par threes, fours and fives at certain times during the round, etc. Some routing worked well but ended softly or with easier holes. A few routings had too many long walks between holes. One routing had too many short holes (par threes).
We ultimately settled on routing Hole #16 as a shorter, driveable par four hole, followed by an exciting par five with a boundary fence along the entire right side. You then finish with a vast 18th hole with a beautiful downhill tee shot over an angled creek and an uphill approach into the green. There is also a short but incredibly demanding par three found at the 14th hole. Lots of drama early on in the round, and then it slowly builds to culminate with holes 14-18 and the fun, match-play-oriented finish. The bold lines showcase the ultimate routing.
Kudos to Jim Ryan, Jr., Design Associate, and Shaper Extraordinaire. He was responsible for finding and piecing many of the final concepts together with me and deserves a lot of credit for the final routing!