Rees Jones strikes me as the kind of architect who can do just about anything that the customer wants. Usually, his customers want a golf course to be retooled so that it can withstand the onslaught of the professional tour. And not just a tour event, they are often looking for a course that is tough enough for a US Open, a PGA or a Ryder Cup. He has had success working with clubs and with the PGA and the USGA because he knows how to deliver what they want.
What those "customers" want is seldom what the other customers (i.e., the members, the guests or the paying public in the case of a public course) want when they play the course. Let's take Cog Hill #4 as an example. It was a perfectly fine, if somewhat pedestrian, site for a regular tour event. It had some Dick Wilson character in its green sites, a nice variety of shot values and a lovely rolling piece of real estate. But as the pros got longer, the course got easier. The owners were intent on getting a US Open, even though that would seem to be a bit of a longshot, since the course had hosted the Western Open/BMW Championship so many times that it might not have the allure for an Open.
In comes the Open Doctor himself, working with the owner and tangentially with the USGA. The result is an improved golf course in some respects, principally in the fairway rebunkering and the tree removal which really helped a handful of holes. The changes to the greens, which were said to be consistent with Dick Wilson's style that featured "fingers" that protruded laterally above deep bunkers, in fact resulted in making access to certain areas of certain greens virtually impossible. The course also had a number of chipping areas around some of the greens, a USGA fave, which led to some Pinehurst like shots on a non-Pinehurst like track. The course was easily four or five shots harder for us regular schmoes, so many of us though that Jones had succeeded in his mission, but the pros widely panned the course last year, drilling the final nail in Cog's Open Coffin.
I don't blame Rees Jones. He did a fine job. He did what the customer said he wanted. The customer thought he'd get a shot at an Open. The customer was wrong. He may wind up losing the tour event as well, because the sponsor doesn't like the fact that the pros are so hostile to the course.
The regular "customers", my pals who have a regular tee time are left with a course that's easier on the eyes, but not nearly as fun or playable, unless one moves up a tee box or two, which players are sadly loath to do.