Wayne,
I’m not sure what some are suggesting, but sand lines do change over time from maintenance edging, sand splash, golf clubs hacking away, drought,…and so on. In my question above, I was just asking if someone is going to restore the face of the bunker, why not restore the whole thing? For example, I’m pretty sure Tillinghast would not want to see high flashed sand bunkers at Somerset Hills like you see at Winged Foot. If he wanted them that way he’d have designed them that way to begin with. Again the same goes for sand flash and crowning of the slopes beyond.
For those of you interested, Ron Prichard was kind enough to email me his position on sand flash. Here is what he had to say -
“Regarding your question regarding the hiding of a portion of the putting surface: Of course you would take care of this as you developed the original work. I doubt any of the small handful of early particularly skilled architects ever anticipated the accumulation of sand on the green side faces and crown of the slopes that we've experienced over so many years. I also feel quite certain none would have counted on such an occurrance to shield a portion of the green's surface.
He also told me that he has the Ross drawings and an original as built routing plan of Schuykill Country club's golf course.
Tom Paul told me Ron likes this site and would participate more but just can't type.