George,
That is one of the great mysteries of Seaview.
The original greens were hailed as masterful, and if one blows up the photo that starts this thread of the 18th green in 1914 you can get a sense of it. I'm not sure I know how to do this correctly, but let's see..
Tillinghast wrote;
"No two of the putting greens have been built alike. There is one which resembles a huge oyster shell, another which is supposed to typify the waves of the sea, one of the terrace variety, a punch-bowl green which has won great praise, and others with distinctive characteristics..."
" Looking out from the club-house, the course certainly looks "golfy," and one is reminded immediately of the seaside courses of Great Britain. The contoursa are good and the land not as flat as one might expect. It would be quite unfair to attempt a close analysis of Seaview at present, for the course is not bunkered, and many holes, which at present lack distinction, undoubtedly will be developed and become attractive in the eyes of the critical golfer. But that which first makes itself felt is the excellence of the greens. Without exception, the quality is fine, and for the most part the contours have been created in masterful fashion. There is, however, an apparent leaning toward saucering a few of the greens, which is unfortunate. It certainly has made a bad hole of the fifth, where the green assumes the shape of a punch-bowl. The introduction of the punch-bowl type of green anywhere on the course is questionable policy, but when the green may be reached with a full shot the punch-bowl cannot be considered bad golf. However, the fifth hole at Seaview calls for a drive and a rather short pitch with a mashie. Here we find a funnel-like green, which will throw the ball toward the hole from all sides; but certainly we must expect greater accuracy from the mashie pitch than that which this green demands."
"So might many features at Seaview be commended, and a few of them criticised, but any criticisms now would be untimely, for no course is open to criticism until it is developed."
This article is interesting for several reasons.
First, it sounds remarkably like "Far and Sure"'s review of Merion when it opened. But rather than going there right now, this report confirms another earlier account of the dramatic green contours from October 1914;
Also, it is odd that Tillinghast mentions the course not being "bunkered" yet, but we know from the 1914 pictures that bunkering already did exist. Perhaps he simply knew of Wilson's penchant and belief of not doing much in the way of bunkers initially til one sees how the course played, because his account does not match the photographic historical evidence, nor Donald Ross's notes where he talks about existing pits and such.
The Ross notes also only connote green contours on greens he proposed building to replace existing ones, such as his notes on the 5th, where he wanted to replace the existing punchbowl green with a "double punchbowl", set more diagonally to play, and with a ridge between the two. You can see his contour lines for the proposed green on the right-hand side of his drawing.
In later cases you'll see the original hole descriptions discussing green contours which are still reflected on the ground, such as when we get to the 9th hole (today's 13th).