Brad Klein said;
"If I may express two dissenting views on the Macdonald book. I would love to have read more about the lives, character and social networks of these strange characters. George and Gib suggest some curiosities about Macdonald, but there's so much unmined here regarding CB's role in American golf, as well as the stunningly contrasting nature of Seth Raynor. I know it's an architecture book, and perhaps the material wasn't as readily available to do this kind of exploration as it was for Ross. But I kept wanting to know more about them as people and as visionaries."
This is such a great point! Obviously there was plenty of material about MacDonald's life, his idiocyracies etc, his influences on all things to do with American golf but as Brad surmised that aspect of the man could be so voluminous as to appear virtually unmined, at this point.
MacDonald is often called the "Father of architecture" or at least the "Father of American architecture" but he was definitely so much more than that!
When one considers his age, born in 1859, the time when he became transfixed by TOC and the entire ethos of Scotish golf, 1872, as well as his so-called "dark years" when he had nowhere to play in America, or to even discuss golf in America, 1875-1892 (18 years), one can begin to see that C.B. MacDonald should definitely not just be called the "Father or American golf architecture" but the "Father of American golf".
He certainly was the "Evangelist of Golf (in America) but few seem to really realize just how much he alone may have not only started it all over here but how singly he was responsible for fostering golf and architecture in this country in so many ways!
So it does seem a wealth of not only material about him that may be unmined but certainly a greater wealth of understanding that needs to be mined!
In researching for a book on William Flynn, everywhere we turn to do with people who influenced Flynn--Geo Crump, Hugh Wilson etc, some of the earliest producers of good architecture in America, it's apparent that before they even waded into the thinking for their projects, they consulted C.B. MacDonald to one extent or another.
We even found an amazing wealth of material on Hugh Wilson, who with two men from the US Dept of Agriculture created the USGA's Green section. But before Wilson contacted those two men, (Piper and Oakley), in 1911, C.B. MacDonald had been there before him--and proceeded to advise Wilson on agronomy.
And certainly not the least of all of this unmined information would be the highly unusual personality of MacDonald. Could another man with a different personality have done all that he did? I doubt it!
Clearly, there may be some darker areas to him as well. Herculean egoism, arguments, possibly physical fights, orgiastic womanizing and opinionating on so many things!
None of this should be left uncovered, should be left unreported or sanitized either--it should all come out from a balanced historian.
It all makes him even more interesting and shows him to be the interesting quilt he apparently really was!