I'm surprised no one else has jumped in on this, and I'm guilty as well.
Why are we giving Mike a list of courses to use as ammunition to support the redesign of a 1927 Donald Ross course?
Good point, The membership is debating this issue. Here are the facts.
1927 design by Ross, there is evidence he visited the site but not likely one of his more personal efforts. More likely executed by JB McGovern the manager of his Philadelphia office.
A few years later Tillinghast during his PGA of America tenure redesigned the 9th hole for certain and most likely also redesigned 13 & 14. Number 9 was a downhill par 4, drive and pitch type hole. It would be reachable today if still in existance. This hole was changed due to proximity to the clubhouse. Today it is an excellent 200+ downhill par 3. #13 and #14 were reversed from a 3/4 combination to a 4/3 combination. Folklore has it that this change was made as there were no doglegs on the back nine and the only set of orginal plans in tact show it in today's configuration so there is evidence Ross thought this worthwhile. The really irronic thing is that many holes on the back nine play as doglegs today with the growth of trees; now 13 is viewed by many of us as too severe as the risk reward of trying to turn the corner has been destroyed by overgrowth of trees not on our property. Tilly may have also converted 18 from a 220 yard par 3 into a 340 yard par four with the simple addition of a tee, but again the orginal plans show the hole as a par 4 so there is much confusion as to why it was ever a par 3.
(editiorial note Ron Prichard would correct me in that par was never a thought for Ross however the length of the hole was changed greatly)
Over the next 60 years the typical in house work of new tees, too many trees and bunker addition and removal.
In 1995 we contracted with Brian Silva for a restoration, not exactly sure how the project went so wrong but the finished product was pretty uninspired. Silva may have lost interest due to how the membership micromanaged the project. Or we simply may have not had the right contractor. Maybe we went with the low bidder. The new tees were a sucess but the bunker work is too uniform and angular.
Over the past two years the club has been working with Ron Prichard on a master plan for restoration. That plan was approved in spirt by the membership last summer although the funding was not. Plan includes returning to the orginal 13/14 routing.
We have the worst practice area in golf, 150 yards max, where you hit from mats over the end of our 18th fairway. My shanks land on either the 18th green or our 10th tee. We are a golf club (no pool, no tennis) and not having a modern full length practice area is a weakness to attacting avid golfer members. This winter a two members had the revelation that we could fit in a full length range by changing two holes from 4/4 to 3/4. Only one green would be lost. We are in the very early stages of this process but Prichard has provided a plan for this concept.