"First, it is unreasonable to measure contribution to a design in days. Designers like MacKenzie were known for laying out entire courses a matter of a day or two.
Second, you and Mike are both saying 3 or 4 days, but I have seen NO EVIDENCE how long Macdonald was in Haverford on either one of his site visits. It is entirely possible that it was much longer that the 1-2 days total that you guys seem to think it was."
David Moriarty:
Days have very little to do with it in the broad scheme of things. What has everything to do with it is the written record we are left with.
I don't care if Macdonald spent one hour at Merion laying out and designing and overseeing the construction of the entire golf course or whether he spent six months there laying out and designing and overseeing the construction of the golf course.
The point is no matter how much or how little time it may have taken him if he had done anything remotely like that in Philadelphia I see no reason whatsoever why both Hugh and Alan Wilson and everyone else connected with Merion would not have mentioned that as part of the written record the left us.
But no one did mention anything like that regarding M&W in Philadelphia.
What they did all leave us with is ample written evidence that it was Wilson and his committee that did all that in Philadephia.
By the way, it is certainly not lost on me, and I presume on anyone else reading these threads that you just continue to ONLY mention and over-analyze those few words in which M&W's advice was mentioned as if there was no other written record of who did Merion East and West.
You continue to completely ignore and avoid all the other voluminous written records from everyone else about who it was that laid out, designed and built the golf course. I would point you once again to post #649 and the constant references in Alan Wilson's report as to who it was---eg Wilson and the Committee.
Aren't you the one who agreed with me that those Wilson reports and what they said are probably the most valuable evidence we have? After all, noone, not even you, has ever denied he was the architect and the one there every day with his committee.
Well, if so, look at all that they said and not just what they said about Macdonald and Whigam which to date is all you have ever mentioned on here. Why is that?
To date you have not mentioned all of it, just those references to M&W, and I think it has become pretty apparent some time ago why you've done that---eg to support an unsupportable hypothesis that M&W have been discounted or minimized in the creation of Merion by either us on here or by Merion or by both.
They have not been discounted or minimized, not in my opinion, anyway. I accept the very words of those men who were most connected to the project---The Wilsons, not only what they said about M&W but what they said about the others there every day who were involved in the project. What they and so many others said about Wilson and his committee and the creation of Merion is just so obvious as to what it means.
I suggest you begin to do the same--eg look also at what everyone said about Wilson and his committee if you EVER want to understand the truth about the creation of Merion, and frankly if you ever want to be seen as even remotely credible on this website and on these threads.
The fact is you have incessantly disagreed with everyone on here, constantly maintaining that either Merion itself or us need to give M&W more credit for something. The fact is after all this time it seems that noone agrees with you or your "hypothesis" to that effect. Doesn't the fact that noone agrees with your hypothesis, or the fact that they have even begun to mock it, have any meaning to you at this point, and if not then why not? Seriously?
Is your final analysis on this Merion/M&W subject going to be, once again, that everyone is confused but you, or misunderstands you, or is arguing with you unecessarily or insulting you? I sure hope not because that is poor analysis, poor research and very poor scholarship on your part.
If you float a "hypothesis" on here and after all this time it seems to be unacceptable and unaccepted by all the contributors on this website some of whom are pretty savy in this kind of analysis, I would expect you or anyone else to understand what that really means. This isn't about you---it's about your hypothesis on Merion and M&W! Realize it.