"But most of the holes at PV require significant carries, no?
Not really.
Only on a few holes, such as # 5 and # 15.
PV isn't a course for beginers, but, the carries aren't heroic for the most part."
Patrick:
World Atlas of Golf (3rd edition, revised and updated):
PV: Par 70, 6,765 yds.
Hole No. 1 (427): significant carry from tee to fairway, another smallish carry just after the dogleg.
2 (367): Tee to fairway carry; another carry from fairway to green.
3 (185): entirely a carry tee to green.
4 (461): tee to fairway carry; another carry from fairway to a piece of fairway fronting the green.
5 (226): nearly entirely all carry, for at least 180 yards, partially over water.
6 (391): tee to fairway carry.
7 (585): I count three carries on Hell's Half-Acre -- tee to fairway, fairway to layup fairway, layup fairway to green. "It may be the most exacting par-five in the world," according to the World Atlas.
8 (327): tee to fairway carry.
9 (432): tee to fairway carry, plus another carry from fairway to fairway portion fronting green.
10 (145): All carry, with what the Squire charitably described as the "Devil's Hole" staring you in the face as part of that carry.
11 (399): tee to fairway carry.
12 (382): tee to fairway carry.
13 (446): tee to fairway carry, with another carry to secondary fairway fronting green. "The 13th is the epitome of the heroic hole in golf..." World Atlas.
14 (185): entirely carry over water.
15 (603): tee to fairway carry entirely over water.
16 (436): tee to fairway carry, with another carry from fairway to secondary fairway fronting green.
17 (344): tee to fairway carry, with a fairway to green approach that's entirely all carry.
18: (424): tee to fairway carry, with a fairway to green approach that's entirely all carry and partially over water.
I count 29 carries. Whether some of those are significant/heroic I'd leave to your judgement, as you've played the course alot and I haven't. But the World Atlast write-up, my own observations about the course from research and others, and televised events like the Nelson-Littler match suggest more than few of them are of a heroic nature.
Sully, whose caddying experience there is significant, suggests in post #18 that putting from 20+ feet on PV's greens is more challenging than you suggest, regardless of speed.
I don't doubt the aid of a caddie would help my game substantially in playing PV.
Knowing the yardage from the tees I'd be playing at, I believe, would help inform my view of my ability to play the course near my (alleged) 18-handicap. For my game, the difference between 6,100 yards and 6,500 yards is significant, and would greatly impact my judgement about how to play the course.