Tim B: I assume that round you just described was into a south wind, since all the holes you made big numbers on play south.
I hate to comment on #12 this early in the thread, but I'm off on a trip for the next week and probably won't be here much, so this is my only chance.
I think I've explained here already that the most difficult part of routing Pacific was to get #4 to play south along the coast, and to jump from the coast at 11, out at 12, and back in at 13 without some really awkward transitions. In a previous version of the routing, after #11 we played from 4 green back to a green by the middle tee on #4, turned around and went back to the south, and came back to this green location from #3 tee after playing #6 ... so all of the oceanfront holes would have run north, but they wouldn't all have been consecutive.
Once we sorted the routing, we actually built the back tee for #5 as a tee for 12, but we realized that someone would play down #4 to shorten the hole, and ruin it for everyone. So the tees moved right over toward the dunes.
Downwind, this is a pretty simple hole except that you think you've GOT to make 4 or even 3 to keep pace. We did contour a swale in the approach so you could steer a ball in from right to left.
Into the wind, the hole is another story entirely, because that bunker in the middle of the second shot catches a ton of balls. It's a bit farther to clear on the second shot than it looks standing in the fairway, because of a fold in the contours that makes you not see about 20-25 yards of ground in front of the bunker. I've even gone in the bunker after I was sure the ball had already bounced past it! And if you get in that bunker, no way you get on the green with your third shot.
The other reason people have so much trouble with the hole is because the green is very big and tilts a bit more toward the ocean than they realize ... so a bailed-out third shot leaves a 70-foot putt which few people judge correctly.
Finally, a construction point ... all of the dunes to the left of the hole for the last 150 yards are man-made, as is the ridge which houses the greenside bunker. It was very flat in that area, and we had to do something to steer play away from #4 tee (which is pretty close) and out to the right. Otherwise, we could not have put the green up against the back dune. The mounds to the right between #3 and #12 were added to stop players from mistakenly playing to this green on #3.