David:
I did mean modern claims when discussing the Chasm Hole being numbered as the 12th. I think we agree that the idea that the Chasm Hole was ever the 12th Hole is a latter-day fallacy.
I noted that 1890 letter earlier in the thread, and came up with a routing that was my best guess as to how those nine holes played and which ones survived into later iterations of the course (see posts 186 and 204).
Here's part of my writeup and the routing map from post #204:
I'd surmise that the routing of the original course was as follows:
1st Hole - Probably played along the same corridor as the 1st on the map.
2nd Hole - Probably played along the same corridor as the 2nd on the map.
3rd Hole - Along the cliff edge near the location of the 2nd green on the map.
4th Hole - From somewhere close to where we believe the 3rd green lay (near the X on the map) to a location near where the 5th tee would have been.
5th Hole - Played over the Punch Bowl, suggesting it ran on a similar line to the 10th hole on the map but longer.
6th Hole - The same as 16 on the map.
7th Hole - A short hole of 115 yards that played from near the 16th green to close to the 17th tee on the map.
8th Hole - The same as 17 on the map
9th Hole - Close to the same as 18 on the map, playing between the Punchbowl on the right and the Dell on the left.
Here's the map with the original 9 hole routing marked, with one possible solution for how 4 and 5 worked (each marked in orange). For the perfectionists in the group, this is only meant to be a rough attempt at identifying the routing.
Sven