Mayday,
Thanks for your well wishes. It is unfortunate that the best of Park's work here in the United States (Maidstone) is so relatively unknown outside of the more serious golfing circles. Granted, having such neighbors as NGLA and Shinnecock would make any course feel a bit from the lack of attention.
It also doesn't help that the area Willie Park examples like Greate Bay, Berkleigh and PSU White have been maligned through the years and are no longer standing examples of the quality of his work to the laymen. I think one of the most dramatic moments I had in this experience was when showing several Penn State golfers pictures of the bunkering at Sunningdale (Old) and explaining that the White Course bunkers could conceivably have a similar feel. They were astounded, and even further surprised to hear that most of the greens were 50% their original size, and the fairways even smaller comparatively.
It seems that one of the more confounding forces against restoration (or even renovation) work are preconceived notions of older golf courses - stuff like small, slow greens and generally "poorer" playing conditions. While the quality of the turf may have been suspect, I prefer to take the Scott Anderson approach and say that the "playability" on top of the turf was of a much higher quality than today.