Peter:
I have written a whole chapter of a book on the routing process for Pacific Dunes. Someday I'll polish it off and get it published.
For now I will just say that Mr. Keiser was more focused on the "ocean holes" at first, because they were the easiest to visualize, and because he knew that most golfers would find those holes the most memorable. The truth is probably the other way around -- any holes along the oceanfront were probably going to be considered great holes because of the setting, so how the holes inland connected to them was probably the more important part of the puzzle to solve, and was the key to where the ocean holes started and stopped. But, yes, I suppose I probably looked to figure out the cliff edge first in my initial routing, even if I had it wrong then.
(My first version of the routing was done on maps that didn't show the 6th & 7th holes at Bandon Dunes, so some holes I'd drawn through there had to be scrapped, which changed most of the rest of it.)
I have told many people that whatever "added pressure" there was because we had a great site to work with at Pacific Dunes, the other side of the coin was that it was a tremendous opportunity, which balanced out any pressure. The only time we had any hesitation was when it was time to put a blade in the ground on #5 and start building something ... Jim Urbina and Dave Wilber and I were the only ones around that day, other than Peter Pittock was there to visit, and yes there was a moment when we all realized what we were about to start. But as soon as we tore into the green site, it was gone, and we didn't think about it again until the last hole (#15) was finished.