Mike -
I believe the size of the greens must be looked at from the standpoint of intent vs. reality. Knowing your home course as I do, your smaller greens (before expansion) were rather difficult in terms of limited cupping areas and a large percentage and cupping area limited to the higher percentage and severely slopes portions of the greens. With the larger expanded greens there may be some areas with a lesser percentage of slopes but now hole locations can be placed closer to hazards and green edges. IMHO there are many factors that dictate what the appropriate size of a green needs to be - length of hole, angles of play, natural surrounding grades...... and so on. Does a bigger target truly equate to easier play when cups can be cut in tucked locations or in and around swales, swells, ridges, knobs.....? We are in the process of working with a club set to host an upcoming USGA Championship event and their priority is to expand the greens to their intended sizes. When visiting with a USGA Agronomist last year, his statement was "we are looking to get the shortest height of cut as close as possible to the hazards" That goes for green side bunkers, fairway bunkers, fall-offs and water.