Thank you for all the fine information.
Clearly an interesting history with many hands involved though I would argue, because they both put their heart and soul into the project, the most important were George Bahto and Gil Hanse.
"Folklore" is that every golden age guy that set foot on the property had issues and perhaps not enough artistic license for my liking.
Perhaps that is why the course was never perceived as one of the better Macdonald or Tillinghast efforts? Some of the neat features were most likely bulldozed over through the years and some because of meddling probably never hit the ground.
What they both did expertly (IMO prior to getting frustrated) is route the course over a rocky rugged property of immense scale. That remains to this day, though a lot had been buried under trees and brush and Rees mounds. it has been rediscovered. The photos in Ran's review no longer do the property justice.
As part of our original "restoration" (restoring a classic look in the Macdonald style) we re-routed a poorly conceived hole and did minor work on one green. This year we have embarked on a plan to build 18 USGA greens. We have completed nine and will finish the work next fall.
More importantly, we have re-countered, restored, and rebuilt many of the greens that had been changed over the years. Some we did not have documentary evidence for but the ones we did have good shots of have been restored. Most neat in that regard is our present day #14 (visible in the 1926 aerial) with two long mounds on the green running along the line of play that that segment the green into three lengthwise sections. Something I have never seen.
All this work was envisioned originally and is IMO true to the course heritage. How could it be any other way when many of the ideas came from my dear departed friend George Bahto? I know Gil thinks about him often while he attempts to channel their ideas into the dirt. Gil does not like any GCA chatter from me but I will say it is so impressive that a man like Gil, on the top of his profession still tells me every-time we walk the course how much he gained from his relationship with George Bahto.
I have never been much of a "homer" when it comes to my home club, I have always been happy that we have improved the course to the extent possible while making the course a great walk, and most importantly "FUN".
I let the "raters" do the rating, but from what I have seen the course will be SIGNIFICANTLY better in the spring and even more-so spring 2018.
A testament to having caring, experienced, passionate, knowledgeable people involved and getting out of the way.