JC,
You asked, "Phil Young, What are your thoughts regarding the statement on the availability of historical information?"
I guess you are referring to the article where it states, "Jones says much of the character of the original Tillinghast design had faded over the years, and, that with limited historical documentation available, the challenge was imagining what Tillinghast had intended for the site."
I am wondering in what sense the question is being asked? Is it a simple one of "Is there very little information available" or one of "How much research did Rees and his people do?"
First of all, as noted above by Rick, the Tillinghast Association was contacted to see what information we have about Tulsa in our archives. There is very little and what is there was definitely passed along. The real questions that should be asked are "How much archival information does the club have," "How extensive a search did the architect and the CLUB perform" and "Was it used?"
First of all, knowing Rees and his people, I can't imagine them NOT doing a thorough search with the club for photos, drawings and written documentation of all types. In situations like these the research can be long, tedious and expensive and just as clubs want budgets and costs held to certain amounts in the construction work so, too, with research. Even where a great deal of time, money and effort is put into researching a aproject, sometimes the information isn't located because its simply in a place where no one thought to look. Let me give you an example that Tom will especially appreciate.
When they were restoring 13-15 at the SFGC, they had photos and drawings of everything EXCEPT the 14th green. They looked everywhere, and one only has to walk through the men's grill to appreciate the variety of old photographs the club has of the course, but were unable to find any. They even contacted some not assocated with the club to see what they could find and no one was able to find any. They were nearly finished with the project when I received an email from the Green Committee Chairman which started off by saying "You are our last hope..." and asked if I might possibly know of any photographs of the original 14th green. Literally within 5 minutes of getting that email I sent him 5 different views of the hole taken by Tilly and published back then. He was stunned as no one else knew of them nor had even thought of where to look for them.
Now, as much as I sometimes like to think of myself as a genius, the reason I knew of these photographs was quite simple... I used one of them as part of the end sheets in my Tilly biography! You see the end sheets are made up of Tillinghast ADVERTISEMENTS that featured different golf hole photographs of his, the 14th green of SFGC being one of them. It was nothing more than dumb luck that I was asked and was aware of them from having used it that way. Unless one regularly does detailed research of this kind they simply would never think of looking at old advertisements for specific golf course photographs.
Fortunately, the work Tom and his pople did was superb! They were able to get the green, its entrance and the bunkering right without them.
So JC, the real answer to your question is that I wasn't involved and so can't speak to the extent of the research done by either Rees' people or the Club itself. Is there more original information out there? Most defintiely! I've personally seen that to be the case far too often. Unfortunately, it is the rare club that will spend the monies to reclaim their history through a thorough research. That is unfortunate because I believe there is very little greater that a club can do than invest in a comprehensive "Course Evolution History" as it will show them what was original, the changes made, most importantly WHY they were made and uncover a great deal of lost agronomic information that will help in the future care for the course.
The bottom line is simply the answer to this question... "Is the Club satisfied and happy with the work that was done?"