I disagree with Tom Doak re: variety. The Ocean Course has plenty of variety, both in terms of look and in terms of the problems presented for shotmaking. Regarding look, compare, for example, the tee-to-green low profile holes (2, 4, 8, 18), the low profile holes with built-up greens (3, 14), the ground-level holes with flashy features (16, 17), and the run of steeply elevated fairways to begin the back nine (10, 11, first half of 12). Regarding variety of shots, consider two runs of approachs: the second (relatively short approach if played as a three shot hole, no one clear best shot to play in), third (tiny push-up green, mandatory aerial approach, roughly equal penalty for any miss), and fourth (open to the ground game, especially with certain pins / wind conditions); and the thirteenth (relatively short approach most of the time, water hard right by the green, key to the approach is angle based on tee shot placement), fourteenth (sort of redan-like, with the wind often helping the draw), and fifteenth (relatively low profile on the approach again).
Instead, I think the reason Pacific Dunes outshines the Ocean Course is that fully half of the holes on the Ocean Course do not blend into the land (1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 16 17). That's the Pete Dye style, and it might have been the best solution to the very flat site, but it doesn't create the same burning desire to play until after it's dark that I get at Pac Dunes. Of course, that doesn't make the Ocean Course bad; having not played many top private courses but most of the best publics, it makes my top 10, though closer to tenth than first. That doesn't mean I would change anything about it, but it does put it one or two notches below Pac Dunes for me.
I would like to see what would have happened if the 10th through 12th at the Ocean Course weren't so damn unnaturally high. The resulting course might be worse, since they're all fantastic golf holes, and it certainly would reduce the variety of visual perspectives one gets during a round. But steep drops on flat land (as opposed to at, say, Yale) rub me the wrong way a bit.