It's been too long since I've been to Thatcher, and I don't remember it.
I concede that South Grove has some real limitations (14, 18 and the trees), but I guess I like it more than most is maybe a better way to say it. I do like the small greens, for example when I played there recently I missed one pin high left to a right pin. I had the easiest of easy chips except that the green is a push up and 2 feet past the hole it would run off leaving no shot. So I weanied the chip well short. That's a common feature out there that I really like.
Old Smokey was a feared ball breaker (and card wrecker) of a hole. Yes, it's 13 and up the hill. It played unreasonably long and the green had a ton of slope. I was nearly impossible to par. As you got to be able to drive pretty close to the green it became easier as the approach was much shorter and the angle in was better. Approaching up the hill from 200 yards was a rea l challenge. It was no great achitectural or strategic masterpiece, but it had a real lore and character to it. It also got you up the hill, and I think was better than putting the green down below and just walking up.
One year I come out to find that 5 was a par 5! It is a good half-par par 4, but as a par 5? If cuttnig the corner comes off, it's driver, wedge. Anyway, who cares, the hole was the same. I come to Old Smokey and it's a par 5, too! We must be soft if after a hundred years with better clubs we need to add a stroke here. But, to be fair it was really a par 6 or so... But when I get to the green they've moved the green back and put in a two level kidney shaped monstrosity that's totally out of tune with the rest of the course. And the middle of the green's narrow enough that you can easily leave a shot on the front of the green that needs to be chipped to the back. Plus, there's no way to know where the flag is until you get up there, so it's just totally random. Anyway, they ruined a memorable and storied if mediocre hole, and there was no chance that it would be put back, so I boycotted. Having Coffin and South Grove next door which I like better anyway cerainly helped with that decision, though.