Tom:
I thought Brad's article was clear in several spots that Tripp re-designed greens. In fact, the description of 16s photo says the "the redesigned 16th green . . ."
The bunker style that Tripp used was consistant with many bunkers that I'm looking at from the 1938 aerial.
I certainly admit that there are spots, especially 10 were he could have done more expansive, almost huge waste bunkers with no grass islands. I've not seen a current aerial so it's a little hard to tell. Plus, the exact shape of the bunkers is the touch of the shaper, not Tripp. All in all we restored locations, such as 10, and it's a vast improvement. Is it exact, no, but its far better than before Tripp got there.
Also, regarding the routing, I've said it before but it's worth saying again, we've just re-seeded Strong's original 3rd tee and since we always have pins cut in all 19 greens you will have the option to play Strong's ORIGINAL routing EVERYDAY. I know I will likely play it more than not because I so much prefer playing both 11 and 2 or 20 (which will be 10 and 14) on the back.
Tripp also restored a good portion, although not all, of the String of Pearls on 16. BTW, I've said it before but they were grassed over by 1938.
Tom, I'm also wondering why you've never criticized the new back tee on 2 or 20, if you have I missed it (that I'm almost sure Gil did, but I'll correct that if I'm wrong) that streched the back markers from the 90s to about 115-120? IMO, it's such a better hole because the longer yardage enables you to hit anything from gap wedge to punch 8 iron. At 90 yards the shot and club selection is much more limited. For instance, I often hit a punch cut 9 iron and at 90 yards I'd have no room to play that shot and it would be sandwedge everytime.
Some change is good and while we'll never agree on that (I suspect) what's been done is far better than I ever expected.
We're also not totally done and I hope we restore some more bunkers, especially the greenside bunkers on 18 and take out some that don't work, IMO, such as most of the fairway bunkers on 7 and the fronting bunker which prevents one from trying to bounce up there tee shot.
I wish I experienced more of the process but alas I was not there.
One thing that I'm certain of is that Engineers is one of the brightest stars in a region of courses with many stars. It is, IMO, once again top 2 or 3 in Nassau County and likely top 5 or very close thereto on all of LI as I can think of few others I'd rather play on a regular basis (but then again I'm known to be a homer but I'd argue that's because I've been very fortunate to have outstanding homes).
Thus, I'll say it again, Kudos to Tripp Davis for having the guts and the inclination to take some chances at Engineers because the result (while not complete) is truly outstanding!
JKB