Gib,
#7 a reverse Redan? Have you ever sat down with the first published MacKenzie routing and the final to compare the differences? The Cypress Point routing changed in significant and subtle ways prior to and during construction. And probably many more times than we even know about. So even if MacKenzie was in his room at night tracing over Raynor's never-before-seen plans, the final routing changed significantly several times for many different reasons. Thus making any connection betweent Raynor's style and what is in the ground today as being Raynor's, a highly speculative notion at best, silly when you look at the evidence and the way in-the-field architects like MacKenzie and Hunter worked.
The eastbound reverse redan that you attribute to Raynor was originally a long par-5 running west in MacKenzie's initial plan. So why did MacKenzie change his own work? To capture Raynor's reverse-Redan at #7? Or maybe it was to fit in the Eden he changed it to keep Raynor's Eden at #3?
Also, the H.J. Whigham theory borders on the outlandish. You are now saying that he was there for a reason? Could it be he was on vacation? I know the club would love to read the letters and perhaps the report Whigham surely issued to Marion Hollins that obviously would have ensued after such a consulting gig to make sure MacKenzie was carrying out Raynor's vision. Is Raynor deservering of credit for every course Whigham stopped by where Raynor had once been? Was he visiting these courses to follow up on his friend's dying wish? I suppose Tommy Armour and Bobby Cruikshank should get credit for the Biarritz, err, 16th because they were photographed hitting shots there for Robert Hunter? While we're at it, lets give credit to MacKenzie for Riviera because he was photographed by Scotty Chisholm there. Boy, we've got a lot of photos to go through if this is the new standard.
The notion that the sixteenth is/was a Biarritz is really a strange thing to put out there. I just don't see how any long par-3 over a chasm of some kind becomes a Biarritz because Raynor "found it?" (First, who wouldn't have seen a golf hole on that point, oh, and Sam Morse and later Marion Hollins probably found it at least two year years before Raynor set foot on the property, and Lord knows who else saw the potential for a golf hole there before 1925.)
I will also stick by my SPECULATION that it is not out of the question MacKenzie refused to look at Raynor's routing, or at least took minimal interest in it before doing his own. Most architects I know who are asked to look at a property (where another architect has done a routing), steadfastly refuse to see what was penciled in until they've done their own. It is not necessarily out of disrespect, it's just a matter of keeping an open mind when looking at such a huge canvas. Factor in MacKenzie's ego and the fact the clubhouse site was pre-selected, and I suspect that MacKenzie, who was also pretty outstanding at routing, was more interested in taking a walk and studying the land, then looking at a blueprint to see where the Eden, the Redan and the Short were going to be.
Geoff