What a time sink! A few things I've learned (or forgot I knew -- haven't even listened to the audio interviews due to technical difficulties) from this site:
*That CB Macdonald published four articles on "Representative American Golf Holes" in Golf Illustrated magazine using NLGC --
Sahara:
http://tinyurl.com/2ky9vt Alps:
http://tinyurl.com/3yvmzh Redan:
http://tinyurl.com/3bml7s Cape:
http://tinyurl.com/32d9xy*That CB's niece thought he had "no sense of humor...was not a nice man," was a philanderer, and didn't want to do the design but changed his mind when he found a seam of sand on the property.
*That the drive to build the course was driven in part by the fear that Harvard was building its own course, and that the leader of this effort was a friend of CBM--thus the commission.
*That "many" bunkers have been filled in -- would love to know more about which / where! (These are not obvious to me from scouring a circa 1943 aerial...)
*That the second green originally was contoured like the eighth (knew this but had forgotten...)
*That the swale on 9 green was quite possibly deeper, or possibly that the "fairway" front green sloped more towards the swale, enabling the "run through" shot to the back tier, and that as Geoff notes in an old thread that 5 green was almost certainly raised higher
*That originally water was to intrude in the play on the 16th
*That the course probably could not be built today due to environmental concerns and, if it could, would cost in excess of $10-million to build
*That, along with John Reid Jr., our very own Tom Paul served as an executive officer on the 1899 Golf Club
*That the course was filmed during the 1931 CT Open played there (on the site!) and that the film appears to show:
--That there was a beautiful bunker down the left side of 1 fairway (this can't be that mild bunker there now; it looks closer to the tee and perhaps more in play for the Tiger tee)
--That the bunker complex right of 8 green may have been far more intricate and complicated than today's or that the aerial circa 1943 apparently indicates
*That after going through this site Sean Arble will appear unbidden on my doorstep. With luck, I even will be home. We will depart on a "North to Dornoch" pilgrimage, with traffic.