No, not the myth about the train,
Many, when discussing Pine Valley focus on the width of the fairways or the nature of the greens from a putting, recovery and approaching perspective, but, few if any ever discuss the variety in the lies one experiences at PV.
While the first hole appears flat, the DZ is sloped, high left to low right.
The 2nd is uphill.
The 4th has so many different slopes, depending upon where your drive ends up that it can't be restricted to a single slope.
The 5th is uphill
The 6th is relatively flat, but, the DZ just over the gaping fall off, is sloped.
The 7th is probably one of the flattest DZ's on the golf course
The 8th has many slopes, depending upon where your drive ends up.
The 9th, while not severe, has mild downhill, sidehill, uphill and flat lies
The 11th has many different slopes in the DZ
The 12th, like the 7th is perhaps the flatest on the course.
The 13th is relatively flat in the middle and right, but, uphill, downhill and sidehill slopes abound.
The 15th has sidehill uphill in the First DZ and very sidehill, uphill and downhill in the second DZ.
The 16th has mostly sidehill-downhill slopes
The 17th has mostly uphill-sidehill slopes
The 18th has mostly sidehill-downhill slopes.
Now, all of these fairways are very generous and as such, one side/location of the fairway can have a totally different lies than other fairway locations.
I think this variety, within each hole, and collectively, provides a unique challenge.
Many, many years ago, Jay Segal told me to use a driver off of # 8 tee so that my ball would come to rest on the slight upslope in front of the green, instead of on the downhill-sidehill portion of the fairway, leaving me a very easy approach, compared to an approach that could easily get away from you. Better to have an uphill sandwedge (lob wedges hadn't been invented yet) than a downhill wedge or 9-iron.
# 11 offers a nice uphill launch pad in the DZ on the left, but, to to far and the trees on the left block the shot, forcing you to hit a very high shot in order to get over them.
Likewise # 17, hit driver and get as close to the green as possible with a sand wedge.
Playing with two very good golfers, who've been playing PV for over 30 years, both said to me that the great, great majority of their approaches on # 17 came up short. Now that's not a bad thing if you hit the green because it's steeply sloped, but, if you come up short of the green, it can be a difficult recovery. Both of these fellows were 0 handicaps for many years and still maintain 2 and 4 handicaps.
Perhaps one of the most challenging lies on the golf course is the approach lie on # 15 as the land, which generally goes uphill toward the hole, can fall sideways, steeply away from you, leaving you a very dicey approach to a difficult green. Ergo, some golfers lay back on their second, prefering to have a longer shot, but a relatively flatter lie. By accident, I left myself 180 from the green and hit a nice 3-iron 15 feet. On the next day I hit much closer to the green but had a far more difficult lie, resulting in a thin shot that landed just short of the green (not a bad place to be with a center hole location).
Very challenging lies can be presented to the golfer on # 4, # 8, # 11, # 13, # 15, # 16, # 17 and # 18.
The variety in the lies is quite unique.
Off the top of my head, other than NGLA, on courses with wide fairways, I can't think of many that have that variety.
In GENERAL, Has there been a tendency, in the name of "fairness" to eliminate the roller coaster nature of fairway DZ's to accomodate the broader spectrum of golfer in the modern era ?.