RJ,
I'm not sure where the disconnect is.
David has asked for feedback on his article, and I believe that some of us have provided it. I just don't think he's happy that we aren't on the same page or leaping to the same conclusions.
Tom Paul just provided evidence, for instance, that Hugh and Alan Wilson were keenly involved in this whole question of building a new course for Merion all the way back to 1909, yet David's assertions rest on the idea that he was somehow brought out as an innocent sheep in January 1911, way after events were already in motion.
I brought up evidence that many, many members of Merion and others in Philadelphia including Crump, Tillinghast, Lesley, Findlay, Griscom, et.al. were frequent visitors overseas between 1900 and 1910 and were all familiar with the great courses and holes there...before a line for a plan was drawn, an acre of property was purchased, and before a spade of dirt was overturned at the new Merion site.
Because these pieces of the puzzle do not "fit" where he wants to drive this, David seems to either ignore them or say that they are coming from a position that is being unfair to his thesis.
I'm not sure what the point is of providing feedback when it is ignored, or when we're called "fools" by him because I expressed incredulity that here a month after David returned to the site, and a week after he presented his White Paper, supposedly suddenly Tom MacWood (who rebuked me in a private email for suggesting here that he was actually feeding information to David as part of an agenda) provides David with a fundamental piece of evidence. I thought the timing was just very much the sort of thing I feared regarding the motivations of both of them, and told them so.
This stuff is supposed to be fun, guys, but some of it starts to make Hillary Clinton seem sweet, kind, open, and transparent.
But...from an academic standpoint;
I find it interesting that the article calls him Hugh "G." Wilson, not because I doubt it's him, but because it is now basically the 4th different middle name/initial that I've seen.
There's also other information that should be considered, such as what Hugh Wilson's birthname actually was, but I'm not going to invest the time and energy if this is more about the background sniping and one-upsmanship and more unfounded speculation stated as gospel than a Reverend Wright sermon than it is about Merion.