Well written posts by all. Some great thoughts and too many for me to respond to each but here are a few comments/ideas to ponder.
If you play Pine Valley enough you will realize most but not all of the tee shots are not overly difficult (if you are a decent player and aren’t intimidated by the forced carries) as the landing areas are generous. However, the approach shots are very demanding and PV might be the hardest second shot course in the game.
When I first played there, the course had a lot more trees and a lot more undergrowth. If you missed a fairway, you generally lost your ball and if you were lucky to find it, it wasn’t playable. Over the years, many trees have been removed and much of the clutter cleared out. There is now sometimes a chance of a recovery shot but they are still very demanding if you are lucky to have one. I have now played the course a few dozen times and watched scratch golfers get humbled, myself included, and higher handicappers state they were elated for the privilege to experience the course but thankful they don’t have to play it every day as it was just way too difficult for them. I have always felt anyone who plays that course without an X on their card (especially if they are a double digit handicapper) has had an incredible round (and a damn good caddie who didn’t mind looking for golf balls in the scrub/woods)!
As I believe Colin stated, PV breaks some design rules as well like all the forced carries. Wasn’t it Mackenzie who said “any good hole should be able to be played with a putter”. Good luck with that on most every hole at PV. I think most of us think Mackenzie knew what he was talking about so how could you give PV a free pass and claim it is the paramount of design?
Furthermore, I think it was Davis Love who once said he loves PV but it really doesn’t require a Driver on any hole? How can a course that doesn’t test a Driver for the top players be the best in the world?
So now you have a course that is irons off all the tees for most pros and is absolutely brutal for higher handicappers and yet it is considered #1!
Also match play vs medal play was brought up. Without question, PV is an exceptional course for match play. But for medal play?
So how important is one vs the other?
And one more point to ponder, the course doesn’t even have rakes and there are foot prints in many of the bunkers! What kind of conditioning is that!
If nothing else, maybe this thread points out that even the consensus best course in the world has a number of controversial aspects that make course rating a very subjective and personal exercise. We all will never agree on the “right” criteria and what is most important for a golf course to be great but that is just fine. Every list has their own methodology for how they arrived at their conclusions just like those who posted here for PV. They are all just lists. Let’s embrace them and talk about them but not bash them.
By the way PV is a 10