Ian Andrew,
I think the yardage, at under 500 yards and the view from the elevated tee on # 3 lulls you to sleep.
A huge fairway expanse greets you as you climb from the second green to the third tee.
And the elevation fools you into thinking you can hit it farther than you think, thus taking the right side bunkers, low lying Sea Grape and the off fairway, sandy waste areas out of play.
The slightest head or crossing breeze from the east can play havoc with a gambling drive or drive hit down the shorter right side.
As I was addressing my drive the ball was oscillating on the tee and I got distracted, careless and drove right, into the Sea Grape, resulting in a lost ball. I reteed, drove it down the right center, hit a three wood over the corner of the trees onto the front of the green and two putted for a six.
Had the three wood not carried the trees I don't know what I would have made, but, it wouldn't have been pretty.
My reason for describing my experience is to point out that it's not all about the green end, which can be traumatic.
Even with a good drive the second shot to the green looks benign, wide open, but, it can be treacherous, for if you go left, doom and gloom may follow. If you go right, you have a very dicey recovery to contend with.
Both holes deceive the golfer with their seemingly benign look from the tee and fairway.
As you said, it's not until after golfers experience disastrous results that they realize that there's a lot more going on architecturally than they first thought.
Other golfers never see the dangers and chalk up their experience to bad luck.
Those type of golfers usually deem themselves, just "unlucky" players.