RJ,
I don't know if I'm put off more by your being "astonished" at my intellectualism or that you consider me as being intellectual!
Jeff, the flaw in your logic, at least about Tilly and probably about some of the other ODG's is that you are looking at them through 21st century eyes rather than putting yourself back into the culture of their day. This is a common problem that people have when they try to understand the history of anything.
You asked a very good question, "BTW, define numerous? I make 30-60 site visits. I bet Tilly was 3 to 6, making it much harder to control every aspect..."
Each job was different as the work that the customers would contract for was defined by their budgets. That seems so logical, but consider, saving $1,000 in 1918-1928 was a significant sum of money where today it is but a minor change order. A number of clients wanted Tilly, Ross, and others to give the design and then leave the construction to themselves. Tilly preferred to design courses where he controlled the construction process rather than just giving a set of prints and strongly insisted on this. As a result, most of his designs were constructed with his full knowledge and approval.
Now earlier, I used 5 Farms as an example and will continue to as it is quite representative of how he worked.
Tilly visited the site more than a dozen times throughout the project. you mentioned that you visit your work 20-30 times; how much time do you spend on site when you do this? Aren't many of these visits just fly in and back out?
Tilly would spend longer stretches on site, so even where he would only visit 5 or 6 times, the overall time spent was far closer to what you spend then what you might imagine.
For example; when he contracted 5 Farms, he stated in the contract that, "I will arrive at the club on the morning of Wednesday, June 18th, to begin my preliminary work and it should be possible to have the courses staked completely within two weeks..."
Tilly would often have mail and telegraphs forwarded to wherever he was stopping so that all of his projects would continue in a timely fashion. For example, on one occasion he wrote to the 5 Farms committee and told them if they had need to contact him he could be reached in Babylon, New York, where he was also building a course.
Because he spent longer periods of time on site when he was there, it enabled him to carefully examine the work that was being done in light of what his plans called for. He wrote the committee at 5 farms that, "I find that he [Robert Scott] has followed my directions faithfully and well…"
Remember, the original contract called for him to design and build two courses. It was changed to one as a result of the club members who preferred tennis. In fact his original design for the present 5 Farms course had to be redone when they decided that they needed 40 tennis courts, a number of which would be on portions of the property that he had already planned to use for the course, and later on a Polo field.
You also are mistaken in your assumption that, "I take his wide variance of style from course to course as proof that he left a lot of details to whatever construction crew was on board..."
Tilly designed his courses for the land it was to be built on. He did not believe in template holes; in fact he wrote that it was his opinion that to do so was the wrong way to carry out a proper design. That is why, though he greatly liked a number of the courses that CB McDonald designed and wrote about them with great praise, he still took exception to this design philosophy.
Dan, you asked, "If Tillie (and other architect/writers of the so-called Golden Age) hadn't imagined that potential clients were out there hiding among "the masses," would they have written their magazine articles? My suspicion, of course, is that everything any of them wrote was, more or less directly, in the service of "marketing" their services."
Again, just like Jeff, you lack a clear understanding of the day and how Tilly, and others, obtained their work. Most of it came to Tilly as a result of networking his friends and acquaintances and then because of the reputation his courses garnered.
For example, Shawnee was a good first design, but it was Tilly's friendship with many of the players of his day that allowed for the Shanee Open (Eastern Open) to be a success from the very first one in 1912. This, in turn, brought his name as a designer out across the country by the word of mouth of all the players who came there to play.
I would love to see Wayne write an article about the real effects that Philadelphia area golf had on the spread of golf course construction in America. So many fine players and who also would end up relocating elsewhere.
A good example is Cameron Buxton. It was when he relocated to Dallas that he persuaded those locals who wanted to build a great cliub for themselves that they should hire his good friend Tilly, and so Brook Hollow was born.
Many of the great commissions in the teens and twenties were awarded because of connections.
So again, you asked, "If Tillie (and other architect/writers of the so-called Golden Age) hadn't imagined that potential clients were out there hiding among "the masses," would they have written their magazine articles?"
The answer is yes as Tilly had begun writing about golf more than a dozen years before he ever designed Shawnee. We have found an article dating back to 1898 that included photos of St. Andrews that he had personally taken.
Tilly was into any and everything golf related and his writings were both a source of pleasure and revenue for himself. That is why your, "Suspicion, of course, is that everything any of them wrote was, more or less directly, in the service of "marketing" their services..." is incorrect; at least in Tilly's case.