Hi,
I appreciate and think well of Gil Hanse owing to these reasons:
1.
His restoration works on some of the classic courses (Fenway, Quaker and Sleepy Hollow) I visit or work or play almost every season is so unerringly "elevating," from what they were or had become, that analogies are inadequate...though perhaps his work on WFE is best described as like George Martin making a 15th wonderful Beatles album of out of unreleased and remastered material. In concert with the tree program begun in 1999-2001, continued judiciously through the current day, Hanse's work at WFE from the first work of green margin recovery to the latest (almost full) restoration of hole and hazard presentation (ongoing on the back "8" as we speak) is the closest you can come to deserving a shared credit with guy dead 80 years or so. I'm certain this Hanse restored East, could, with the usual USGA bullshit, be engineered to host any type of event, including a Mens' open, but the logistics of the site for modern hosting and the natural reticence to use the West for any meaningful part of it, preclude such a choice. But the course is worthy in such a presentation, and Hanse in uncovering original design has revealed how much more of a
fun challenge the East is, while the West is more grim and stoic. The East has a great deal more whimsy and amusing charm interspersed in its ferocious holes and Hanse has brought that out in spades. So restoration is one reason for my love.
2. The second reason is MF's post, to which I don't need to add much. I played Tallgrass once in 2005, and it really is the only public course, along with Yale, I'm interested in showing friends/golfers who haven't seen one of them.
With Tallgrass, I think he designed the second best public golf course on Long Island. Maybe even first best since I'd probably rather play it more often than BPB. While every hole isn't a home run, as a whole it's an extremely fun course that contains almost everything we tend to value: walkability, variety, strategy, generous playing corridors, and well-positioned, well-contoured greens that add adequate challenge to its 6500 max length. There are devilish short par 4's and long blind par 3's. There are solid risk/reward par 5's. It makes creative use of a relatively flat site, and it has nods to minimalism, quirk, and template-based design.
3. I've had three occasion to make his acquaintance and heard others, whom I respect, report similarly...
he's a decent person and strikes you as the kind of person you wish we had as elected representatives more frequently, though poltics does corrupt even the good I suppose. That doesn't mean he deserves any special acclaim in pure architectural terms, but when his work is of such quality and thoughtful application, you tend to think that maybe good character has something to do with good work.
Those are three reasons I am eager to see his work and ready to see the best in it.
cheers
vk