Pat,
When I played Pine Tree, I was told by my playing companions that the course has a lot more of the fairway/rough definition during the summer, just as you had suggested. They explained that during a recent summer, the club hosted the Palm Beach County Amateur and everyone was more than challenged by the rough. And, the course more than had the type of defined look that I was describing.
I completely appreciate each of your points in response to my notes. It just comes down to preferences, I guess. I like to see a variety of grasses, shadings, and so on. I don't want to see it forced, but when appropriate... And I don't prefer fairways cut to look like landing strips. Again, don't force shapes where they don't belong, but a softer ebb and flow just looks better to me when it's appropriate. I hope to have the opportunity to see Pinetree during the summer I (if they'll have me after my postings here), when the bermuda is growing.
Speaking of courses that fell off the rating map, are you familiar with Colony West? If so, do you remember it before they built the clubhouse, when #1 was a par 5 and #10 over 600 yards and heading dead east? I vaguely remember seeing in one of the major magazines Colony West on a list of the ten or twenty-five most difficult course in the country. Talk about a brutal course from tee to green! This had to be the hardest flat course in the world, and they did it with a number of greens and greens complexes that were flatter and simpler than Pine Tree's. It had all the length of Pine Tree, but with a lot more water, trees, narrower fairways, and OB. If I remember correctly, tour players used to go over there after missing the cut at the Inverrary Golf Classic and really get beat up. From the tips in a two club or stronger wind, anything under 80 was a miracle.