The pros always say that 17 at TPC Sawgrass has this effect. The hole weighs more and more on one's mind as one approaches it during the course of the round.
For me, as a shorter hitter, any hole with a big carry off the tee will weigh on my mind from the beginning of the round. 18 at Merion comes to mind as such hole. Also, if I am playing a course with a few notorious holes, I will be thinking about these holes from the start. It will not matter where these holes fall in the round. If I were playing North Berwick (to choose a purely random example), I would be thinking about "The Pit" on the first tee. This effect stems from my GCA fanhood more than anything else.
To answer your question, such placement should depend only on the lay of the land. Does it always though? Probably not.
I am in complete agreement with you John. I just wonder if the modern GCA has this as a consideration- again perhaps due to his/her brief.
At Gullane No1 the first hole is really short (they have actually now put in new bunkers) but the better players pull driver an expect to be very close, if not on the green. (300ish) You want to make birdie to give yourself a chance given the difficulty of the drive on 2!!
You mention North Berwick where the reverse can happen. The whole back nine is tough in a wind- especially 17 (made birdie a handful of times in 1000s of rounds) but 18 is always there for your birdie chance at the end. You know if you can squeeze a par out on 17 then birdie is on the cards on 18. Pressure is off slightly.
Those 2 courses are pretty old in Scotland, let alone US terms so the 'design' will have most def been lay of the land based rather than say when Dye did the afforementioned Sawgrass. That was always going to hold a tourney so no doubt 17 was influenced by that. Perhaps not....
I am absolutely not obsessed with score BTW. It is just something that has accured to me once or twice when I was!!