John--
Your initial impressions of Palm Beach Country Club from the water are accurate. It's on a surprisingly good piece of property in the North end of Palm Beach. It's a bit of an anomaly as it appears as if it's on some sort of rocky terrain. When you drive to the Southwest of the club, you go through an area where you have some relatively tall rock walls on each side of the road. PBCC is a Donald Ross design.
The course is relatively short as you would expect on a tight piece of land in Palm Beach. It has a nice variety of short holes, from a little 100 yarder uphill to a 225 yarder. Actually, there is a lot of variety in all of the holes, even the par 5s, although you wouldn't think that by looking at the scorecard. Either 11 or 13 will play against the wind and will play relatively long.