Pat:
I wouldn't matter to me if Coore and Crenshaw or anyone else did squarish or so-called geometric shapes in the design of a course today.
All I've ever said about it or tried to say about it is that it indicates to me no more really than a particular era (and style of that era) in the evolution of early architecture!
It's not lost on me and shouldn't be on you either that GCGC has much of that same "squarishness" in many of its architectural features! Why? Simply because GCGC is basically from the same era in the evolution of architecture that NGLA is!!
And furthermore, I've definitely never said I didn't like that early style either, despite what you might think about what I've said about the extremely natural lines and style of almost all architectural features that would be best exemplified by say Cypress Point!
It's all just that I appreciate those styles primarily in the context of the era they came from and I believe that golf architecture had simply not come remotely close to reaching that extremely natural lined architectural style when NGLA was created (1910) and GCGC (earlier) but that Cypress Point was very much from that era that had reached and probably perfected that natural lined style which was in the 1920s!
As for Chechessee, which I've never seen and why Coore & Crenshaw did "squarish" features there, I don't know and I've never asked them but I believe I will. If I had to guess at this point, though, I might say they did it simply because they are students of the history and evolution of architecture, and extremely good students, and they simply might have felt like paying homage to a particular style and era and the feature style of it!
That would be no different at all than what they did at Hidden Creek which was to create bunkering that sort of pops out of the flattish site, and doesn't particularly flow with the natural "lines" of that site as well as other things they've done elsewhere! Anyone who knows their basically "naturalistic" style would wonder why they did that at Hidden Creek. I wondered too and asked about that. I was told that the golf course was basically a "heathland" adaptation in New Jersey because the site reminded them of a heathland look so they basically paid homage to the very early "heathland" style and look by doing bunkers that looked like that early era! "Ridgy" was the way they were described and explained to me!
But as to what to do today and where that "squarish" (geometric) style might fit best, I just couldn't agree more with what Tom Doak just said above!
If you're going to do it at all, whether paying homage to something or simply reprising an early look and style it would be best to really pick your sites, and as he said, doing it on a flat site would probably be best, the kind of site that has things like flat horizon lines and such simply because that "squarish" style would seem to fit better in that atmosphere and consequently look more natural and fit better in that kind of overall site!