Mayday stressed architecturally, which is the key to this whole post.
When you turn back to the sea at Portrush its almost like the gate to Brigadoon, a mystic golf experience walking down that hill.
The splendor of the world that surrounds you at Cypress and Pebble Beach is beyond any golf experience I've ever felt. That being said the grandeur of the space at Sand Hills , the splendid isolation seems similar. How do you compare the rugged beauty of Royal County Down with the shadows falling at Shinnecock or NGLA. You can't. Because when you are there nothing seems better.
Hole by hole, shot by shot Pine Valley beguiles. Mayday just said that #1 was the easiest hole. I would argue it is often one of the hardest for the best players. That speaks volumes one of the hardest holes for the best players might seem eminently playable to a double digit handicapper. No disrespect intended Mike!
Oakmont has greens that are beyond wonderful, I marvel at the ability to keep them so hard , so fast everyday. However if you played Pine Valley at those speeds almost no one would break 75. When its really firm and fast, which is rare given the problems it then presents, everything changes. Very few players see just how difficult it then becomes, very few have experienced it in the forty years I have been blessed to examine it.
So if we are talking a course to play every day stop the discussion, its not the best. I can think of more than a few that fit the bill. But the intricacies of the greens, the demand to consistently hit solid shots in the right spot are unparalleled. Crump must have had an angel on his shoulder and the Jersey Devil pulling at this pant leg when he envisioned this place, its that good.