JJ,
I grew up in Philly and played Merion, Philly CC, Cobbs, Llanarch, Atlantic City.... with friends and playing high school golf there. However at my 25th high school reunion last fall, I still had not played Pine Valley GC, but that changed about a month later when I finally played Pine Valley.
It was a soup to nuts experience with staying in the cabins, playing the Short Course, dinner and breakfast in the clubhouse...
Growing up in Philly, you tend to be dismissive of local greatness. I certainly do not appreciate Merion enough, but that is probably because I have been playing it with friends for 30 years. Pine Valley sits 60 miles from the ocean, and I have always been a sucker for ocean courses (see Pebble Beach). I had played a bunch of the Pine Valley imitators, including WW Pine Barrens which I also love, so how great can Pine Valley be?
The greatness of Pine Valley, for me, really starts and ends with the golf course. The clubhouse, entrance gate, cabins .... are all very cool and fit the atmosphere perfectly, but every hole there is at least very good and many are all world. Despite what my other thread may convey, there is plenty of width there at PV. Most of what Jim Sullivan says is true, it is more for GCA.com asthetics to pull out trees. Every shot, every green is unique from each other. The only course in my mind that has a similar trait is National, with Cypress and Sand Hills being extremely close.
I did not find it overly penal, however the greens were very reasonable speed in late fall. As long as that other thread on PV 17 goes, I think that you could easily do that to each hole. Great club, extremely unique great course.