At this juncture, and with the understanding of those timelines, I think it's important to go back and re-visit the writings of "Far and Sure" in American Golfer that I mentioned earlier.
I had speculated that perhaps "Far and Sure" was Tillinghast, but Phil Young strongly disagreed and mentioned that he thought it was Walter Travis. I'm still very uncertain who it was and might examine that further if need be. However, let's look again at what he wrote.
In the October 1912 edition of "American Golfer" he states;
"The new eighteen hole course of the Merion Cricket Club, which has been under construction for more than a year was thrown open to members of the club on Saturday, Sept. 14..."
"The new course...was constructed under the direction of Messrs. Hugh I. Wilson, H.G. Lloyd, R.E. Griscom, R.S. Francis, and H. Toulmin...."
"Some of the famous holes abroad have been reproduced and the course abounds in water and road hazards, although many of the pits and traps remain to be built."
Then, in the January 1913 edition of the same magazine, "Far and Sure" attempts a fuller review of what he's seen at Merion. Interestingly, the pictures accompanying the article show the trees are completely full of leaves. Anyone familiar with weather patterns in Philadelphia would recognize that this means that "Far and Sure" had played the course sometime between when the course opened in mid-September 1912 and the end of October, and likely would have written the article at that time, which then made it into the mid-winter issue in January.
It is somewhat astounding at how unfinished the course still appears at this juncture, but that seems also confirmed by an American Cricketer account by Tillinghast around the same time (has anyone found that one yet??) where he is supposed to (according to an account of the article by Jim Finegan) have pointed out that comparatively few bunkers were yet in place. Tillinghast apparently ended the article by writing;
"I believe that Merion
will have (emphasis mine) a real championship course, and Philadelphia has been crying out for one for many years. The construction committee, headed by Hugh I. Wilson, has been thorough in its methods and deserves the congratulations of all golfers."
Whoever, he was, "Far and Sure" seemed to have much the same impression as Tillinghast on the unfinished state of Merion upon opening. He wrote;
"Ever since golf was introduced in Philadelphia, the city has been in great need of a course such as Merion has produced,
or, I should say, is producing, for the work is still in it's early stages. It is important to note that it is now a FULL SEVENTEEN MONTHS since Macdonald stepped on the property to see the layout plans that the Committee devised and the course is still far from finished.
Far and Sure still notes Macdonald's contributions, if for no other reason than they seem to be personal friends, or at least golf aquaintances;
"I had heard much of the plans and reports of the progressing work, but
not until a month ago did I find the opportunity of seeing it. Two years ago, Mr. Chas. B. Macdonald, who had been of great assistance in an advisory way (interesting to note the way he words that compliment almost exactly like Robert Lesley and Alan Wilson) told me that Merion would have one of the best inland courses he had ever seen, but every new course is "one of the best in the country" and one must see to believe after trying it out."
So, what do we know about "Far and Sure" at this point?
We know he knows Charles Macdonald enough to have conversed with him about golf.
We know he had heard much of the plans and reports of the progressing work at Merion.
We also know that he was NEVER there during the design and construction phases of the golf course, and that this was his initial visit to the property.
Despite the somewhat early stages of course development, "Far and Sure" continues;
"Everything indicated careful, intelligent preparation and painstaking development."
"It is too early to attempt an analytical criticism of the various holes
for many of them are but rough drafts of the problems, conceived by the construction committee headed by Mr. Hugh I. Wilson."So, despite a few folks here recently seeming to want to split infinitives again about the meaning of "Construction Committee", Far and Sure points out very clearly that this group is tasked with the DESIGN of the course, and creating the internal strategies and problems, and what's more, they are the ones who "conceived" of the holes and their challenges.
Far and Sure continues;
"Mr. Wilson visited many prominent British courses
last summer, searching for ideas, many of which have been used."
Let's examine this statement for a moment. Far and Sure doesn't seem to be quite an insider on the players at Merion proper. At the time he played Merion for the first time and wrote this the leaves were still on the trees, and it was very likely to have been mid-September, or actually STILL summer of 1912. We also know from what Tom Paul found about the dates and postmarks of the Hugh Wilson letters to Piper/Oakley that he could NOT have gone to Europe in the summer of 1911, as I had speculated earlier. So, what does this leave us with?
1) Not being an expert on what took place at Merion prior to his visit, he could have made a mistake and not known it was actually TWO summers prior in 1910.
2) He could have been refering to the trip that David speculates was made in the spring of 1912, which we now know, if it took place, happened sometime after early March 1912 and ended May 1st. We also know that on that voyage, Wilson reportedly had a ticket for the Titanic, which went down on April 15th, but that he got somehow delayed. Does anyone really believe that this trip, that might have been as short as a few weeks, was the one that the Merion committee sent him on to study all the great courses abroad, not only those in Scotland and England, but also according to David, France as well? That seems to me to be preposterous. Besides, if this was the trip that Far and Sure was talking about I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have said "summer" if the trip happened in the frigid March/April timeframe.
3) He could have been wrong and Wilson never went overseas to study golf courses. That seems unlikely given all of the accounts including this one, but it makes absolutely no sense that the Committee would not have sent him prior to March/April 1912, and then only for a few weeks, and after the course had been laid out, as has been offered as the new version of the truth. If Wilson never travelled before that short trip in 1912, as has been contended, then it's just as likely he never went at all.
In any case, "Far and Sure" does seem to have learned a bit on his visit about what Wilson and his Committee have been striving for on various holes. He goes on;
"For example, an attempt to reproduce the Eden green at St. Andrews has been made at the fifteenth and, in my opinion, it has resulted in one of the few failures...."
"Many of the imported ideas of hazard formation are good, and the grassy hollows of Mid-Surrey have been well introduced. On some of the sand mounds I noticed the growing of something which looked suspiciously like the bents of Le Touquet."
"However, I think that the very best holes at Merion are those which are original, without any attempt to closely follow anything but the obvious."
The full American Golfer article, including the pictures that show the time of year from the leaves on the trees and the clothing of the golfers can be found at the following link;
Please judge for yourselves
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1913/ag93m.pdf