Thanks for the advice everyone. We're actually hitting up almost everything you've all listed. We have a full 8 days between San Simeon and Sea Ranch and we're on the move pretty much every night.
Pasatiempo was a great experience. I got out at 7am and had the course completely to myself.
As far as conditioning... everyone I met on the staff apologized profusely for it. I wish they instead talked up the value of fast & firm and some of Mack's philosophies on it. It's as good a time as any to try to educate. There were some definite grassless bare spots on the fairways, but the ground was far from concrete, and was nicely receptive to the club head.
Being out early, I had the grounds crew with me on pretty much every hole, so I saw a lot of maintenance. The vast majority of the watering I saw was being done to rough behind the greenside bunkers—which makes sense given how much more difficult that shot would be off a bare lie. That said, it was still a little surprising to see so much aqua being put into the longer grass. In fact, I thought the conditioning around certain greens was a bit too perfect with the edges of the bunkers too clean. Would have loved to have seen some more scruffiness in some places. Small complaint.
The course was a blast to play. I really enjoyed myself. A great mix of holes and a lot of variety. I particularly loved the movement of the fairways and how they played wide and forgiving while still running your ball off the slopes. Maybe I just played well, but even my off-line shots had solid avenues of recovery. Similarly, terrific movement short of the greens that allowed run ups.
I did not find the greens unfair, and would love to spend my days trying to learn every nook and cranny, but there were a couple borderline situations out there. The front right fall-off on the 18th green is nuts since the entire right side already slopes severely down to it. They had the pin middle right and my tee shot was 20 feet left of the flag. I played a solid 8 feet of break and miraculously made the putt. I threw another one down for fun and with a smidge more pace that putt missed the hole and wound up in hell. I'd say that's unfair, but crazy putts are my favorite thing in golf (and i made the first one for birdie), so I won't.
As has been mentioned here, #6 feels like it's a different course. Ironic that it's where Mack's house is. When you come upon it, the trees feel so sudden and shockingly out-of-place. Visually, the tee shot is a funky mess compared to the rest. I think it's even obvious in my picture:
A couple more photos:
#16
#18
