Very interesting articles. Thanks to Tim Youngberg, Mira Vista's superintendent, for altering me to this thread.
Certainly Watson was put out in the limelight by Hunter and the founders. We have characterized this as "ghost writing" by Watson on behalf of the up-and-coming Hunter. By this time Hunter had a decent friendship with Ross and had visited many of the great Eastern courses. He had not yet forged his relationship with MacKenzie, which is why we purposefully avoided the temptation to inflict MacKenzie bunkers at Mira Vista. We found only two photos of original bunkers at Mira Vista, and these photos were not good at all. What we did glean was that the bunkers were mostly simple and this proved true when we got into excavating the old locations and layers of sand.
At the time (c. 1920) Hunter was staying low and not wanting much attention, especially by being labeled the "Golf Architect of the new Berkeley CC". Although, as we know now, Hunter — upon completion of the course — took great ownership and paid Watson only a few brief compliments. It was, without a doubt, Mira Vista (Berkeley CC) that got Hunter to get hooked on golf architecture. His refrain from writing about it in THE LINKS is most likely because he fell out of favor with the club, and also that (our belief) was that he realized the many mistakes he made in the routing once he met MacKenzie and began learning more and more. Having said that, Mira Vista's routing is excellent for such a rugged site. Mark Fine supposed that Hunter simply felt the site may have been avoided altogether once he listened to MacKenzie speak of ideal sites and their importance.
Watson's comparison to Braid Hills is certainly interesting. Mira Vista is quite hilly as anyone visiting knows. The elevation change is about 200 feet across the site and there is no hole (none) that can be considered in any way flat, or even flat-ish. The routing is primarily through the famous Hayward Fault (really) and then relies on ridges and slopes until it returns to the Hayward Fault, and then back out on a spectacular ridge to finish 15, 16, 17 and then 18, which ascends to the top of the primary ridge.
Interesting in Watson's quotes are mention of the views of the "Golden Gate". He refers to the strait of water between San Francisco and Marin…as the Golden Gate Bridge would not be built for several years. I learned this the hard way when, speaking in front of some members one day, said how great it would be to restore the view to the Golden Gate Bridge that was originally here when Hunter and Watson originally laid out the course…no one caught my error except an old timer who approached me later and explained that the bridge was not there in 1920!
Photos can be accessed here:
http://www.golfgroupltd.com/mira_vista2.html