Kyle,
I was out to La Jolla CC yesterday to watch the last day of stroke play. LJCC has only 2 world class holes, #11 and 12, which play through a box canyon. There were several other interesting holes, which relied on the topography for their interest. The rest of the holes play parallel to each other on a gentle hill slope. These are all pretty straight and seperated by trees; not a forest mind you, there were several opportunities to recover or punch out. The fact that it is wall to wall Kikuyu certainly doesn't enhance the experience; especially the greenside stuff. The course appeared to be set up for member play although the greens seemed quite fast; players tried very hard to stay below the hole. I followed Allan Geighberger from #8 onward and yes Mr. 59 was in the gallery. He was moving around a bit gingerly due to a recent knee replacement, but what a nice man. He mentioned he had won a collegiate tournament there and things looked pretty much the same as they did back then.
As to Rancho Santa Fe, I played there in 2006 the week after the USGA Jr. Championship and the course was not altered at all from it's normal presentation. The fairways are 40 yarsd wide, with a 20 yard swarth of rough to either side. RSF is a figure 8 layout with a creek cutting through the middle of the course. They have perhaps the most affluent membership in the nation and addressed two issues several years ago. Although the fairways were always Bermuda, the roughs were spotty with a mixture of primarily cool season grasses. The Club wanted wall to wall Bermuda and that was accomplished. Sadly the the memebrs didn't like "the occasional wet spot" when the creek would swell from winter rains. So they undergrounded the creek and planted the area with Bemuda and put in palm trees.
So the creek which Max Behr utilized to allow for all of the risk reward elements is now essentially gone.
I hope to get a chance to make it out there later this week to watch the match play portion.
Here's a picture of the tee shot on #5; the area where the palm trees are used to be the creek. Very sanitary!