I'm with Adam on Persimmon Ridge. I don't understand the hype surrounding that course at all. There are a handful of good holes - 5, 7, 8, and 13 are probably the most interesting - but I don't think any of them should have won over the holes that did.
Donovan, you're obviously a strong player with a preference for difficult holes and courses. I have a soft spot for tough tests as well - I joined Wolf Run after all. Persimmon was intended to be a very difficult course, and it pulls that off well. I just don't see many holes that are especially great or memorable out there. The routing is decent aside from some long transitions due to the housing and whatever the hell they were trying to do at hole 3. But there's a general lack of strategy and interest in the holes and a ton of turf-hampering vegetation surrounding almost all the corridors. On top of that, the shaping tee-to-green is sloppy and the shaping of the greens themselves is possibly the worst I've ever seen. Those may just be golf dorkitecture complaints, but the average player definitely notices when conditions are affected by vegetation even if he doesn't understand the cause, and shaping is one of the biggest difference makers in how a course is perceived by most players. It's what makes lauded courses look like they're in a different class from the rest. The uninspired bunkering and circus greens really hold Persimmon back for me, and obviously for others as well. As Adam mentioned, we had about a dozen guys out there in August.
The tough thing in any exercise like this is getting representation for courses that haven't had much play. Even if we'd had a few thousand voters, there still would have been a major bias toward the courses located in population centers that lots of people have seen and play regularly. It was obviously possible for a course like Devou Park that only one or two guys had played to win a hole, but it took plenty of photos, a glowing review, and weak competition to do it.