Greg you alluded to the answer in my experience.
Teeing off early on a Saturday morning and playing a Great White Shark layout where on the tee, we could not only hear the tenants of their house talking, we could hear them cooking their breakfast - toast popping up in the toaster.
Thankfully most examples of this are rare, but they are still about.
Waves crashing, birdlife in the dunes, although making noises, seem natural, and are perhaps repetitive, so as a golfer, we are used to it - unlike a cough or a sneeze, etc which can be disruptive to those not mentally robust. or even those mentally strong - but all disrupt the serenity as stated earlier.
Brett M