One of the main functions of my job is picking hole locations. Every tournament is different just as every course is different. When I pick hole locations for a US Open qualifier they will be a lot more difficult that for a Junior Tour tournament. It isn't to "protect the integrity of the course" as someone said, but to separate the better ball strikers / putters from the rest. The players who play on the PGA Tour are so good that harder hole locations are required or everyone makes birdie and there is no real separation based on the talent that week.
As an example of selecting hole locations, today I was at Spyglass picking hole locations for the NCGA Junior Championship which is next Monday and Tuesday. I've got 112 players there on Monday. 76 of them (older boys) have to play 36 holes that day. If I pick hard hole locations, we'll never finish. So, they are pretty easy that day. One Tuesday after the cut for those boys, we'll have about 80 players playing 18 holes. They will be a little more difficult, but I've still got 12 and 13 year old kids playing in this and I don't want to wipe them out.
Next Friday, we are going out to pick the 5 days worth of hole locations for the NCGA's most important tournament, the Match Play Championship. The hole locations will be a lot tougher, especially during the three days of match play. We can get a lot more aggressive in match play as we know all the players will be playing well, the pace of play is less of an issue and we really want to challenge them more. But, we'll also have some pretty easy ones so a player can make a birdie and start a comeback. It isn't rocket science but a lot more thought goes into it than for day-to-day play.
As for pet peeves, the front-middle-back thing really gets too me. After my last trip to Bandon, I commented on their survey form that the practice of doing this really dumbs down the courses and makes them less interesting. In particular, all the par 5s at Pacific are multiples of 3 (3, 12, 15, and 18) This means that they are all front, or all middle or all back every day. I hope they look at changing this. Even if they just divided each green up into three sections and put that on their little hole cards, but didn't just go in order around the course it would be better.
I would also dispute the statement someone made about the guy cutting the holes not knowing much about selecting them or even playing the game. At most courses where I'm running a tournament, hole cutters are usually either guys with a lot of experience or the assistant supers. They do know what they are doing.