TePaul,
Just to be sure I was on the same page as everyone, I spent lunch re-reading the IMO piece. Frankly, I think the DM piece is pretty compelling as to the routing process. Given a slower pace, it seems as if the interested parties were working continuously from:
sometime in 1909 to look for land or land options.
June 10, 1910 produce Barker routing on behalf of HDC
July 1, 1910 CBM review for Merion and recommendations. As per JesII post, I felt it was a reaction to the Barker plan, but it may not have been.
August 14, 1910 - Buy Dallas Estate to lengthen course as per CBM recommendations and possible routing sketch. Whether or not CBM routed it, look at an aerial and you can see it would be obvious that you couldn't get a championship course on that side of Ardmore without it. Francis says as much in his recollections.
Nov, 1915 - Land Deal done in principle. Francis mentions some kind of land swap for the 15th green and 16 tee. Note that the property map sans routing shows the boundary road there as "approximate location" meaning they all know its going to change just a bit to max out property for both golf and housing, as would be typical. Apparently, there is enough trust on all sides to go forward, even with this little detail left unsolved.
Somewhere in there, a long term lease of the RR land near the 13th is worked out, perhaps with a wink and a nod, or formally. It really makes no difference, since the course got there.
Golf Construction Committee formed Jan 1911.
Construction starts sometime before 4/1912 and is about 7 holes done when CBM visits again to assist.
Grassing complete in Sept. 1912.
Your biggest bone of contention here seems to be when Wilson got involved and how much credit he should get.
DM says because the committee was formed in Jan 1911 and visited NGLA it couldn't have been until then. While the record doesn't state it, I agree with you that Wilson and the committee may have been forming or in place informally before then. It would have been premature to announce such a committee before the land was acquired, and yet impractical to NOT have one while the routing was going on. Its no stretch to think they took the Xmas season off before starting the formal planning meetings, but it would still represent more or less continuous work on moving the golf course forward.
To what degree they were involved in the routing, I don't know, but it sounds like Francis was actively involved, as perhaps Conner and HDC to make sure their lotting worked out. So, you believe that the committee was walking the property, obsessing over little details of the routing, etc. as any golf architecture enthusiast would. I agree.
Given that Barker and CBM and Whigham were competent, I think many elements of both their suggestions were used in the final routing.
Specifically, I think that the Barker plan probably set the basic L shape (I have stated reasons why I think this is logical from developers perspective) but was too short.
CBM probably led to the Dallas Estate Purchase.
Francis claims credit for the idea of the 15th green land swap to make the last five (and best!) holes work better.
IMHO, there is no doubt that an enthusiastic committee led by Wilson probably came up with a few ideas on their own to assist Francis.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I really feel the club history simply didn't go into as much detail as we would have liked, perhaps because they never thought anyone would care! Who could know that an internet site like golfclubatlas.com would ever come about, or that in the information age, anyone would ever go back and look up ship manifiests, property deeds, land swaps, etc. Look at most club histories, and they focus on people, elected officers, grill room additions, etc as much as they do on golf course design principles.
In my mind, this more detailed new information about how the routing at Merion came to be ldoesn't diminish Merion or Wilson one bit.