I think some of the posts grossly overestimate and simplify Tillinghast's consulting assignment for the PGA. He did not treat every property the same or another words apply a cookie cutter approach and his own style on every course. If the course was a particularly good one, there were very few recommendations. If the course was not, there were allot of recommendations.
The Valley Club may be an example. In the letter, Tilly did not provide a specific recommendation for the removal of any bunkers. However, he did say there were some bunkers that he did not like, or more particularly he did not like the trademark Mackenzie arrangement of sand and turf. In all the other letters for all the other clubs, if there was a recommendation for bunker removal, the letter was quite specific and said just that -- "...recommended the removal of DH's".
In contrast the letter on Valley is very complementary of the course and the Hunter-Mac design. Perhaps Bunkers were removed after Tilly's visit, but this could also possibly be pinned on Robert Hunter as he was there the day Tilly visited, as Tilly wrote,
..."I talked to the chairman of the green committee, answering such queries as he put to me, and also with Robert Hunter, who collaborated with Dr. Mackenzie in 1929, when the course was built."
Tilly wrote nearly 400 letters summarizing his work. The letters should be read in full before suppositions are stretched to revisionists conclusions. In fact, if you read them, you will learn that there was a secret code buried in the text -- in which Tilly communicated with President Roosevelt and identified in which backfilled bunkers he hid the WMDs.