Here's the straight "poop" on ANGC #8 Green.
While I was working for Joe Finger in the summer of 1978 in between semesters at LSU, the Club approached Byron Nelson with regard to his recollections of the original 8th green, as the Club wanted his involvement in restoring the green to its original form. It seems that Mr. Roberts had decided to relocate the original green for spectator purposes, which Bob Jones vehemently disagreed with. He was even more vehement when the reconstructed green turned out to be as TKearns described previously. (When I first saw that green in person, it really jumped out to me as the single green at Augusta which definitely did not belong out there - a uniform plane of a putting surface with two shallow, flat bunkers on either side.) After Mr. Roberts death, the Club soon decided to restore the original green as they believed Mr. Jones would have wished, though shifted slightly to the left to allow the required spectator space between No. 8 green and No. 9 tee.
Mr. Nelson told the Club he worked with Joe Finger, and that he would need to use him as an architectural consultant if they wanted his (Nelson's) involvement. The Club agreed and sent us copies of the original Mackenzie green drawing and the topographic survey of the current existing green. We then made a few attempts to translate the Mackenzie sketches into contour plans which could be staked, constructed, and fit into the space available. After I returned to school for the fall semester, Ken Dye completed the construction plans and built a detailed scale model at 1" = 10' for the Club to approve. The peaks of the mounds actually were softened slightly from the original design for mowing considerations. After the 1979 Masters, construction began with Joe, Byron, and Ken very closely involved on site with supervision of the contouring.
That is pretty much the story as best as I recall, and again, in my opinion the "restored" version of the green is vastly superior to the interim replacement green which was there previously, and Mr. Nelson felt that it was as close to the original as he could get it.
Hope that helps!