In Volume 2 of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, Tom Doak published that.

“When it opened, Grand Cypress was a precedent-setter – the first modern American design to take a flat site, dig lakes and build conical mounds, and call itself a “Scottish-style” course. I happened to be sitting in the clubhouse at Royal Dornoch when I first saw a picture of it in one of the golf magazines, and the juxtaposition between what was really Scottish and what was being sold as “Scottish” was deflating; it was clear that golf architecture was becoming all about marketing, and that average golfers didn’t know any better. Grand Cypress also set one other precedent: it was the first golf course in America with a million-dollar maintenance budget, a figure that seemed shocking at the time, but quickly became a new benchmark for excess. Thirty years later, the style is sadly familiar, but it’s still quite difficult for a resort course.”

The Old Course at the Grand Cypress Resort received a score of 5 out of 10 from Tom Doak and a score of 5 out of 10 from one of his co-authors.