Flynn was indeed a wonderful, and often underrated, architect. His body of work was excellent.
Tillinghast was better!
Specifically why?
Steve,
I ask because there are things that Flynn and Tillinghast do differently in my experience that make me favor Flynn. At the green I find that Flynn uses angled bunkers and greens more frequently and usually has an opening. Tillinghast more often encircles the green with bunkers limiting choice. Or Tilly uses bunkers parallel to the green more often which I find puzzling.
At WFW I felt that many green sites were artificially built up while Flynn prefers more natural green locations.
Flynn is often knocked for his simplicity on his parkland courses while Tillinghast is more visually appealing. But I believe that the playability is better at Flynn courses .
Undulating greens appeal to many but I believe that sloping greens are more deceptive and allow for more pins.
These are a few.
Mike,
You, as a member of a wonderful Flynn course, favor Flynn. I completely understand and do believe Flynn was absolutely under appreciated relative to his peers. I belong to and have a stake in a Tilly and favor him. All square.
I do agree that Flynn did a masterful job of angling greens and bunkers. As for your take on Tilly' encircling greens with bunkers, it's truly only a small percentage of holes (and mostly par 3's at best), I'd point out that Flynn did a fair amount of "closed" greens translating into a "do or die" shot value. Tilly's green side parallel bunker placement makes eminent sense as more often than not, as he used internal slopes to force the better player to pick a side to bring the ball in from. Tilly placed greater premiums on precision that Flynn IMO.
WFW is and was essentially a flat piece of land and the club's mandate was for a competition worthy course, necessitating the artificial elevation of greens and their adjacent bunkering. Flynn was fortunate to have more interesting natural terrain, yet I'd argue that Tilly did far more with far less, thus establishing himself as the greater talent. +1
Tilly's playability is plenty....it just requires more thought and caution. As for slope, there isn't a single Flynn course that even remotely approaches Tilly for deceptive, sloping greens. Tilly added, and sometimes ignored the addition of undulation...most likely in response to the degree of difficulty of the approach. +2
Tillinghast over Flynn