Pat,
Its been said many times before in here, but worth saying again. Poppy Hills is not a bad course, far from it, IMO.
But the realities are that its oft compared to its neighbors which have set such high and lofty standards that it gets wrongfully dissed. For NCGA members its a terrific value and the course does have its fair share of quality holes, its just tough to live up to the general awesomeness found on the rest of the penisula.
As a comparison, Spanish Bay often gets the redheaded step child treatment too which is baffling to me.