Wow this is wonderful news. Tis a pity to be trapped on another continent and not be able to see this.
In 2001, Russell Talley and I spent an afternoon searching for the exact old hole. What makes it difficult is the original hole only lasted until 1936-1937 when JSF Morrison built the current hole and dug into the green site to get the fill for the current hole's perched up/crowned nature. So the original green is lost to posterity. A few years after I went out there with Russell Talley, the former club historian David Dobby and I spent an afternoon looking for the lost hole using historical pictures/attributes for an article that was published in Neil Crafter's Golf Architecture #9 about blind golf holes led by the Sandy Parlour.
As Neil Regan alluded to sadly the former sandy area (which is a low part of the course) is now filled with rushes/grassed in for the most part so the hole looks different than it once did. We also speculate that the ridge which one hit the ball over (from the current winter tee) is a few feet lower than in the early 1900s.. Part of this could of course be erosion but given the war confiscation of the course etc, it also could have been lowered.
Part of the research that Tommy and I did for the Golf Architecture piece can be found here on GCA along with some great old pics of the Sandy Parlour. One of the coolest things was an old picture of the green with a gentleman that Tommy and I dubbed Old Tom Morris for the doppelgänger figure who is standing looking at the green. But the green itself was stellar and had an S like contouring that could be used to nuzzle balls close to the pin. That plus caddies working for a sovereign tip led to apocryphal but rumblings of many holes in one.
Regardless, I can't help but marvel at what James Bledge is doing and cannot wait to return. The only thing that concerns me somewhat about Deal in its current state is the different bunkering scheme styles that Martin Ebert has put in (holes like 10 (left) and 16 (left bunker). I think the course would have benefited from keeping the revetted circular style. If anything Princes restored some areas to look like random sandy areas and that could have worked on the above mentioned Sandy Parlour area for the current 4th. This is nitpicking but I've long maintained Deal should be back on the rota and is also one of the most underrated golf courses in the World. Like Sir Peter Allen I would choose it for my last round it I ever had one.
Link to Tommy's stuff on Sandy Parlour- sadly Neil Crafter's Golf Architecture doesn't have an online repository.
https://golfclubatlas.com/emperor-2/