I was fortunate enough to play the original green in question a couple times last week and I, too, was fooled by what I thought should have clearly been an upward sloping green. However, it really isn't. The fact that there's a 3 foot rise up to the front edge from a few paces short and the fact that the green is benched into the huge dune with 7 tee being above clearly creates an illusion.
Google Earth isn't perfect, but you can see from the front edge moving directly into the green and towards the dune that the rise doesn't fully hit 80 ft from 79 ft until the yellow line. After that line, it's still only 80 ft to the back bunker. Over the length of the green, a foot of rise, in my opinion, is nothing. Hence, the reason that many players, including myself, fell victim to the "uphill" pitch shot from short and end up crushing the ball to the back fringe.
There are a couple bumpers on each side of the green that rise to 80 ft and from the left 80 ft marker up to the blue 80 ft marker that's really the only noticeable elevated portion of the green other than past the yellow line. Anything left and right of that blue marker drops back to roughly 79 ft. The raised bumpers, imo, add to the uphill illusion as well.
Dr Mac....the master of camo!
