Shivas,
You truly don't have a clue here. I don't have the time today to burn down each of your strawmen, but I would simply say this;
Locals who had knowledge of golf courses were called "experts", not only in the press, but in club accounts and correspondence. We also know that the men who layed out Merion, (and if you go back and read all of the quotes that I highlighted yesterday you'll see in no uncertain terms the way the phrases "Laid out" "constructed", "experts", "etc., were used and what they meant at the time) had just come back in January (according to David's timeline) from consulting with other "experts" at NGLA.
That doesn't mean that Macdonald laid out the golf course, nor does it mean he designed, routed, created, conceived, or planned it. In fact, I would take the exact opposite view than you just did and say that if indeed the great Macdonald had designed, routed, created, conceived, or planned the course, the correspondence with members would have very clearly pointed that out.
Both you and David missed the point of the quotes I listed yesterday. They were not to suggest that Hugh Wilson was an expert by 1913, although he was.
They were to prove two very related points;
1) The way the terms were used over and over again in the language and lexicon of the day and that EVERYONE knew exactly what was meant when it was reported that Hugh Wilson "layed out' Merion. It meant he planned, conceived, routed, created, designed the golf course. It's also clear how the term "experts" was used and understood by Robert Lesley of Merion and others in local golfdom at the time. These meanings are all very clear and very irrefutable.
2) It was to make apparent the obvious question that you fail to answer above, which is, If he was just the construction foreman to someone else's plan, why would guys like Clarence Geist, who was building his palatial Seaview, or Ellis Gimbel, who needed to seriously upgrade his Philmont, or Robert Lesley, who evidently had used the great Macdonald for his first course....
Why would they have asked Hugh Wilson to design their courses right after he took off his hard hat, washed his hands, sent his laborers, home, and went back to see what Charlie had planned for him the next day?
Do you have any idea who these men were, or their wealth, their connections, and their spheres of influence?? They could have bought and paid for a new boat to bring Harry S. Colt and ALister Mackenzie themselves over if they were so inclined.
One final thing;
David quotes "Far and Sure"'s review of Merion in "American Golfer", but listen again very carefully to how he describes the respective roles of Macdonald and Wilson in the creation of Merion when he played it right after it opened in Sept 1912. The writer was either Travis or Tillinghast...I believe the latter and Phil disagrees, but no matter;
"Two years ago, Mr. Chas. B. Macdonald, who had been of great assistance in an advisory way, 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."
That is the sole mention of Macdonald. It doesn't say he created anything...whether the term is planned, conceived, laid out, constructed, designed...nada. He VIEWED it, and offered great assistance in exactly the things that Site Committee recommended him for, and exactly what Hugh Wilson later gave him thanks for...CONSTRUCTION and AGRONOMY.
Then, what does he say about Wilson;
"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 Shivas...I have to ask; what is a construction foreman doing "conceiving the problems of golf holes"? Isn't that a definition of Golf Course Architecture, 101?
What's more, he points out that it's still a rough draft, with more details to be fleshed out later, but who does he say CONCEIVED the holes??
Are you trying to argue that Macdonald just routed the course but Wilson CONCEIVED the holes?? How would Macdonald know what to route where if he didn't even know what holes Hugh Wilson would CONCEIVE of??
If all the Construction Committee had to do was implement to Macdonald's plans for the course, whether written, verbal, in a letter, on a train, in a plane, with a fox, on a box, all they had to do was dig the ground and plant grass? They would have had no business "CONCEIVING" of anything. Why was it now 18 months after construction started and they were still only at the rough draft stage if they were just following Macdonald's well-crafted plans??
This was published in American Golfer in a several page spread right after the course opened. I'm sure it was read by Macdonald and Whigham. Why didn't they take issue??
Shivas...this history is much too important to take a revisionist approach and rush to judgement as you and Patrick have done without hard, solid, unshakeable evidence. It's the GCA equivalent of a Murder One Capital trial, and the burden of proof really needs to be 100% before we send Hugh Wilson's reputation and memory to the gallows, because any other interpretation of events really calls both him and his brother Alan liars, and as much as we try to sugar coat it, there's no getting around that unforutnate fact.