JES II,
About three weeks after my -4, 69, I was playing with my surgeon and some friends, and after bogeying the easy par 5 7th, stood -6 to par on the 12th tee, having birdied 7 out of the first 11 holes, so clearly, the golf course is getting easier by the week.
In reflecting about what Gib and others have said, I think it's a combination of a number of factors.
The fairways are generous, but, the fescue rough is very difficult, and once a player enters that domain, they may not recover with less than a double bogie.
In addition, once the golfer finds the bottom of one of the many deep pit bunkers, they get very gunshy about going near them again, and, extraction from them is very difficult.
The cant of virtually every putting surface presents a more subtle obstacle to scoring. It's hard to get close to the hole and it's hard to get beneath the hole with greens that are sloped, on the approach and on recovery
And, with the sloped green, combining break with speed is a challenge when putting.
When you add the lack of visual guides, like on # 7 tee, it creates great uncertainty in the golfers mind, which usually leads to less than desired shots.
With a par of 37 on the front nine, many shoot 3 over and look at the score card and realize they've shot 40, and now fear that they won't break 80. They press, and the rest, along with their score is history.
Some of the fairways are canted, which can result in hooked or sliced shots
When you add the wind to the mix, the conspiracy against scoring becomes pronounced.