Jay,
Congratulations to you & Chris... a wonderful article. I was especially interested in your description of the third green at Oklahoma City, "Next, three is a tough par-three with a hurly-burly green."
For what it may be worth in this discussion, on January 14th 1936, Tilly visited Oklahoma City during his PGA Course Consultation Tour. This is what he had to say:
With Scheider [Francis Scheider, head pro and past pro at Brook Hollow which Tilly designed and built] I went over every hole of this truly fine course. As a matter of fact there was so little to criticise, as he asked me to do so freely, that I was only able to help him in one instance. This involved the third green (149 yards), which was wrongly contoured and with much waste space. Almost in the center of the green was a prominent hummocky undulation, which obviously introduced a large element of luck, particularly in view of the fact that this green is reached properly with a lofted iron, which might end up anywhere depending entirely upon the particular slope of the undulation it might strike upon.
Conferring over this both Scjeider and Frank Pristow (Governor of the club) entirely agreed with me and it will be corrected.
The Seaside Bent greens of this course are very good, after five years, and so is the Bermuda fairway. I made many notes concerning their method of turf production and maintenance, which will add much valuable knowledge to that which we already have..."
Later that year, Tilly would examine Brook Hollow and recommend redesigning their greens. Remember, he had designed them originally in 1920 & again in 1922 after weather damage. They were now in severe need of upgrading and redesigning because of equipment and game changes.
Tilly would recommend that the club use Perry Maxwell to oversee this work and then to keep him on two years later when they then decided to change the putting surfaces from Bermuda to Seaside Bent. His work at Oklahoma City had a GREAT deal to do with his geing recommended for and getting that commission...