Anthony Gray,
The reason few modern courses end that way is the same reason unimaginative owners think they need par-72, 36/36 with balanced distributions of par-3s/4s/5s on each side. Modern owners are nervous about deviating from some formulaic norm, even though it is ONLY variance that makes course routings memorable.
Tim Martin, I drive by the par-3 18th at CC of Farmington almost weekly and always rue it. It's in a hollow, as I recall basically blind from the tee, and feels like an excuse to go from the 17th green to the bar. I am pretty sure that the 18th, like some of the opening holes at CCFarmington, were not part of Emmett's original routing but evolved later during a land acquisition deal that sifted marginal parts of the golf course and led to a rerouting of some of the holes east of Rte. 10 there.