Hi John: I reached out to our superintendent at George Wright GC, Len Curtin. Below find his response...
The steep dramatic faces we frequently see on the old bunkers in front of #17 green and the right front of # 4 are a combination of both original design, and the "redesign" that mother nature takes with wear and tear over time. Meaning that those bunkers most likely originally had grass faces much further down the front slopes. However due to foot traffic, erosion and back-edging from maintenance practices over 80 plus years, the grass line slowly over time has inched closer to the putting surfaces.
In addition, sand splash from 80 years of people hitting bunker shots out of them has raised the front lips of the bunkers facing the green an average of about 15 inches, which makes it an intimidating shot to say the least. When we have rebuilt bunkers like these, we have found the sand splash interface on top of the original soil grade, and removed it to bring the slope back to original height and design. In most cases, Ross designed the front edges of the greens to roll off right into the bunkers. This surface drained the green, and made for a frightening down hill put to the hole, as you could roll it right off the green into the bunker.
It is true that Ross designed both flashed sand bunkers (made famous by Tillighast) and grass down bunkers in his career, with the vast majority being grass down. Due to a lack of credible photographic evidence as to which bunkers at GW were one or the other originally, we are are making educated guesses as we go along.
Design criteria for new bunkers is Architectural/historic integrity, then playability, and finally maintainability in that order.
I hope this answers the question Cob.
Regards,
Len Curtin