I was reading Geoff Shackelford's book, "The Golden Age of Golf Design" today, and couldn't help but marvel at the character of so many of the old bunkers, fairway and greenside, and putting surfaces.
I don't know whether it's because the black and white photos give these features a distinct quality, but those two architectural features seem so much more dramatic than today's bunkers and putting surfaces.
The bunkers also seem so much more pervasive/systemic and expansive, to the degree that the golfer really had to "navigate" his way around the golf course. They seemed to be a far greater impediment to scoring well.
Have today's bunkers and putting surfaces become sanitized due to mechanization ?
How often do you see an oddly shaped green, a non-symetrical green.
If anyone hasn't read Geoff's book, you really owe it to yourself to get a copy.