Patrick: those two bunkers at NGLA and PR were deeper years ago than they are today.
Sort of reminds me of when I first played Harbour Town, perhaps 18 - 20 years ago when there was an incredible pot bunker Pete had behind the great par-3,14th green. That bunker got shallower and shallower and they finally made the green a lot larger (and really wrecked one of the great par-3's) - they did the same to the 15th green there, made it larger that is. Those 4 par-3's at HT were about as good as it gets in their original form - no one ever talks about the par-3, 4th - that darn thing is very touch to shoot at.
Bradley, I don't think it makes any difference if you made one of Raynor's, or any one elses, bunker deeper than they once may have been. It is the strategy that is important.
Some of the Road hole bunkers, or their representations, built by these three architects were nothing like St. Andrews, NGLA or Piping Rock Road hole pots - some were plain out stupid-looking - but again you must consider what the clubs wanted.
Blind Brook was a good example. They told Raynor, thru Macdonald, that they did not want a killer test of golf for their every day course - they could go to NGLA for that if they wanted one.
Interesting also is the same was told to Banks when he built The Knoll - "we're older (30 millionaire founders), we don't want hill-climbing and want a more moderate test." These founders were mostly from Montclair GC (hilly), Essex County CC (hilly) and a couple were from Balturol (J R Monroe - Monroe Business Machines & Thomas Watson, founder of IBM). In the 20 years after the millionaires "lost" the course because many were broke after the Great Depression, the course was owned by the Aiello Bros for nearly 30-years and they are the ones that actually lengthened a number of holes to make them the more "killer" par-4's many of them are today. They did a great job of it, too. I plan on adding a number of back tee to help put some of the original architecture back into the course (not that it is very easy now).
Matt Ward (the Bomber) will love this one: a new tee on 18 to make the hole at least 25-yards longer to put the teeth back into that fearsome hole. Also a new rear tees on 8 (a tough driving hole now), probably 9, a great new tee on 11, at a slightly different angle, probably add a little to the tough 14th, and my favorite: adding about 40 yards to the 15th, a tee directly behind 14-green which will really put all the original bunkers in the first and second landing areas back into the ballgame (and as they should be, repected but leaving a way to play around them ...... Banks did a good job at The Knoll.
The original lenghth of the 18th at the Knoll, for those who know the hole, was about a hair over 380 and about the 4th handicap hole on the back side. They made it one of the great finisheing holes in the Met area (along with the great 18th hole Banks built at Knollwood in NY - that's a really good hole!!)
....... lots of room behind the Biarritz 13th at The Knoll though - hah - but it plays 247 from the tips now so I guess we can't do anything there - that, guys, was the original and only tee-box on that hole. Most Biarritz holes were built with a single tee, usually averaging 225-235 from the middle of the tee. Fishers Island one of the shortest of Biarrtiz's.
The Aeillo Bros. added two forwad tees to the Knoll's Biarritz - no one could get to the green back in the 20's, 30's etc - and even today, break out the "Big-Dog" from the back tee.