Similar to Mike I was very fortunate to play Pine Valley again last week. I by far enjoyed the course and overall experience a lot more this time around. I can recall being a bit intimidated and off my game the first visit. If you are off your game Pine Valley may well tear you apart. Having seen it and heard people say it several times pre renovation I just didn't have the feeling there was a lot of space there. Now that so many trees have been removed the overall feel for me is a lot better and I played much better so probably missed a total of 1 fairway. Good for my standards. I can't think of another course that makes you feel the same way off the tee. To me there really isn't another course where you stand there and kind of worry about all the trouble, which visually is very present on every single hole and basically on every single shot. I would say that every hole is a very good if not great hole indeed which is unique to only the very best of the best courses in the world and for me it comes down to what you personally consider great and your level of play. Cypress Point for example is fun for all levels and an amazing walk. I'd hope a 20 hcp'er would favor it, he would certainly have more golf fun there and have a chance on most holes. In fact, I might even drop border back to something like 8 hcp or even 5 hcp. I think it would take me several plays to be comfortable enough to shoot a great score at Pine Valley. The hardest parts are certainly not the tee shots. The approach are so exacting and require uncommon shots for most players, playing over visually deceiving terrain to elevated greens or trying to determine what you can cut off for your lay up. recovery shots around the greens are extremely difficult, it's rarely that you can grab a texas wedge and just putt up. End up in a bunker and one thing is for certain you better be competent with your sand and lob wedge.
To offer a couple examples, I missed the approach on 17 by perhaps 6 inches to the right, ended up in the very deep bunker with the crazy two tiered green, I hit a miracle shot out of the bunker better than I could of expected and perfect according to caddies and members and ended with a very difficult breaking 15' putt to save par which I didn't make. That's the story on every single hole. I missed the approach to the par 5 15th which played over 600 yds to a back right pin (after two perfect shots setting up the approach) again with a wedge. I landed the ball short of the pin, it bounce hard went over the green onto the road. There is no relieve and the road was dirt and gravel and I hit a ridiculously lucky shot to save my par, great, but the point is, there isn't a single easy shot that I've managed to see on the course. On top of that, 2-3 foot putts, the kind most people gift you are also not gimmies there, just like Augusta. Happy my kind opponent made me putt everything out. I had to sweat over many of them.
So yes, 18 great holes, but relentless and no let up. Does that make it the best or is that overdone? I can easily argue both ways. The closest course I can think of in terms of shot demand would be RCD. Add a heavy wind and RCD would get the nod as the more demanding course most likely.
As to the changes, someone posted pics on the site of the new bunkering on 12. This really splits opinions as do a few of the other bunkers. Also the extent to which the waste areas seem overly maintained. I liked the 12 hole in this version but I'm not sure about the bunkering, first off the color is different than every other hole on the course, that's what people notice right away. I watched one of my playing partner hit a ball in there which just disappeared. I was told that's common (I don't love that). It felt overdone to me but I'd prefer to give it a few years to settle in.
Back to the premise of it being in a class all it's own architecturally. Short answer is I'm not convinced this is the case. I have it in my World Top 5 but behind Cypress, RCD and Shinny. I know those are all great, but they are all more playable for all levels, offer visually spectacular walks but honestly for me they get the nod as being just a little more fun. If my hcp was +1 instead of 5 and I relished grinding on every shot when not in a tourney then I might change that around but for me certain aspects of the game are just so great that if you take them away, the game is missing something.
For me these aspects are, firm and fast condition, ability to be creative and bump and run shots, to land approaches short of the green and watch them roll up. To play with the wind, to have a myriad of recovery options for a given shot etc etc.