So, the question isn't if they are softer than most other Tillie greens, it might be whether or not the general patterns of the rolls that are there seem to follow Tillie greens elsewhere? If so, I say they are Tillies, with some interpretation by Burbeck and crew, which frankly happens all the time.
Last question, none of us has seen the originals, so how do we know what existed even before the Rees redo for the Open have any bearing? Did they ever get re-grassed, which would require a drag matt to prepare the soil, and which often soften contours (and don't ask how I know this, but they rarely bring in the original gca and don't even see why they should). Or maybe that superintendent, whatever year but several past opening, made the decision to soften?
Again, do they look in any way like Tillie greens, despite all the changes?
Jeff:
I played the course once way before the changes -- in 1979, with my mom of all people! I'm sure that others here remember it "before Rees" better than I do. But, I would have to say that the putting surfaces did not remind me of Tillinghast any more than any other architect of that period. [And, Rees notably changed a few.]
But, it's dangerous to speculate. I wrote in the MacKenzie biography that surely the 11th at Yarra Yarra was a MacKenzie original green, but I'm told by the historians that he was never there, and that Alex Russell signed up that job not long after MacKenzie got on the boat. And I would have considered myself way more expert in MacKenzie than in Tillinghast [even though I do consult at SFGC and Somerset Hills].