Well, we did do a small amount of work to the 6th West green today while they were stripping the thatch out from underneath it.
I did not alter the front of the green or reduce the slope at the hole locations at all, but we did extend the hole locations a bit further back, by taking out a bit of soil through the back half of the green. The biggest change was a cut of 7 mm (not quite 3 inches).
We also restored a bit of the ridge that used to cut into the green from the back right-center, and took out a small crown at the far left that had been introduced sometime after the oldest topo map, from 1989.
I do not think we have changed the playability of the hole for the professionals at all. If they're short of the hole, it is the same as always; if they're long, their balls may not feed quite as far back to the hole, so they might actually face a longer downhill putt toward the front of the green. What we have done, though, is to gain some area for hole locations, and to eliminate the weird effect where an approach played above the hole on the right might actually pick up so much speed as to blow by the hole location coming back and right off the green. I think it's fair to assume that was not what Dr. MacKenzie had in mind.
[Sigh of relief]