Kyle:
I cannot remember if I've told the story before, but that green site for #17 was the discovery that led me to re-route the back nine holes just a few months before we started construction.
I was there on a visit with Mike Keiser in December of 2002, at which point the back nine still had a clockwise routing. It wasn't 100% backwards from the current routing, and in fact I might have trouble remembering it all, but the tenth hole would have been a bit like the first at Machrihanish, back down #18 fairway with the beach left, and the eighteenth would have played back down the current 10th to a green site near present #18.
Mr. Keiser thought that would make the most boring hole(s) right at the end, and that was his least favorite criticism of Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, so he encouraged me to try and re-route the back nine the other way around. I was already leaning that way a bit, because the location for #10 green would have been near the present 18th tee, and it was obvious that would cause maintenance problems because of all the blowing sand, and that was an area best avoided with a green. So, I went out to scout the site of the present 17th hole, which was very low-lying and almost wet, and which we hadn't anticipated using up to that point. And there was that wonderful pedestal for a green, and just out of the area that seemed to be affected by drifting sand! Plus, it looked like just the right distance back from the ridge for the tee location! I took Mike out to see it, and he loved it, so I rerouted the rest of the back nine from there ... but I never did draw it up for anyone, because at that point it still wasn't clear if the course would go ahead or not, and I didn't want that routing laying around for someone else to pick up years later.