To me one of the most interesting things, as well as perhaps annoying things, about these Merion threads with a guy like David Moriarty taking part on them is that with probably any other golf course in the world if it's club's archives contained a document like Alan Wilson's (Hugh's brother), written in 1926 at the request of Mr William Philler who intended to record the history of the course and club to date it would probably be taken as gospel and a most fortunate thing for a club to have in its possession explaining in quite a bit of detail the way the course was created and by whom.
I have Alan Wilson's report on this entire subject right here including his letter to Mr Philler discussing his Philler's history book project and his request of Alan Wilson. Why did Philler ask Alan Wilson to write this report? It's obvious---who else was closer to the action all along the way, every step of it, than Alan Wilson?
Most on here may not know much about Alan Wilson but he was surely no slouch, he was a founding member of Pine Valley (serving as part of one of its construction committees), a prominent member of Merion, GAP, a member of the Green Section of the USGA as well as a board member of the USGA. He was Hugh's partner in business and he was considered to be one of the best experts in America, along with Hugh, on American agronomics of that time.
But yet, for some reason, when some of it was put on here a year ago to explain the facts of the history of Merion's early architecture what he wrote was either ignored by the likes of Moriarty or just dismissed as something that probably inaccurately promoted his brother or of inaccurately promoting or glorfying the work of the Merion Committee which was charged with creating both Merion East and West or else had almost every word picked apart and analyzed on here to the extent it was considered meaningless.
Why did that happen? How can that kind of thing happen on these Merion threads? Why did the participants on this website allow that to happen or accept so easily that it did? Is it because someone like David Moriarty decides to classify it as not "fact" and therefore automatically call it and its accuracy totally into question? If that's what's happened here that too is outrageous, in my opinion. Again, it isn't that often a club even has something like this Alan Wilson document, or one from a man that close to the entire evolution and history of a course.
In my opinion, that is really pretty outrageous and it's also very insulting to a club who accepted his report and with numerous members who had been there through the whole thing and to a man with an impecciblle reputation and unquestionable character.
For the reasons given above I don't know that Alan Wilson's entire report ever has been put on here. I would be willing to put the seven page report on here but not if it's going to get the kind of blaise or insulting treatment again Moriarty and perhaps some others gave it a year ago.
It's an important and fairly comprehensive document on this very subject that is these Merion threads. Is it really any wonder that these threads go nowhere productive when something this significant to the history of a course is given this kind of outrageous treatment?
Wilson's document was essentially dismissed and perhaps almost forgotten in the course of these threads. It's almost as if most everyone just assumed he had to have been lying or jading the truth somehow to promote his brother or the club at the expense of someone like Macdonald who didn't live in Philadelphia.
This was an honorable man and the treatment of his document recording the history of Merion on here is just outrageous. In my opinion, those on here who treat Alan Wilson, or Hugh Wilson and their documents on the creation of Merion as Moriarty has do not deserve it----they tear it apart and make insinuations about his purpose in writing it simply to defend their highly suspect agendas which seem to have little to do with seeking the truth about the architectural creation and evolution of Merion.