"The most difficult problem
you have to contend with is to get in eighteen holes that will be first class in the acreage
you propose buying. So far as we can judge, without a contour map before us, we are of the opinion that it can be done, provided
you get a little more land near where
you propose making your Club House."
In other words, it's theoretically possible, guys. Why would they need a contour map if they'd just walked the property, David?
Perhaps because they just took a perfunctory walk around and didn't realize that what they were shown was all of 85 acres of today's present course (less the 21 acres of the Dallas Estate, which they clearly did NOT recommend, less the RR-owned 3 acres near the clubhouse, and less the land they didn't own that makes up today's 11thgreen/12thtee, and less the 5 acres they didn't own that makes up today's 15th green and first 200 yards of the 16th hole), and even then they weren't really sure just by a gut feel if that limited of a property could even house a 6000 yard course.
Still, they tried to put a nice face on it, and say...geez...you guys might be able to fit a sporty, "first class" 6000 yard course if you can aquire those couple of acres by the clubhouse...however, without really knowing the parameters of the land in question, because you don't even have a map to show us, it's difficult to state for certain.
"The opinon that a long course is always the best course has been exploded. A 6000 yd. course can be made really first class, and to my mind it is more desirable than a 6300 or a 6400 yd. course, particularly where the roll of the ball will not be long, because
you cannot help with the soil
you have on that property having heavy turf. Of course it would be very fast when the summer baked it well."
Really guys...this won't be so bad. With your sluggish inland conditions, it will play longer.
"As regards drainage and treatment of soil, I think it would be wise for
your Committee to confer with the Baltusrol Committee. They had a very difficult drainage problem.
You have a very simple one. Their drainage opinions will be valuable to
you. Further, I think their soil is very similar to
yours, and
it might be wise to learn from them the grasses that have proved most satisfactory though the fair green.
Yep, David...it sure sounds like Charlie was taking project ownership and a high degree of interest in this one.
No wonder they went their own way. Talk about a polite brushoff.
David...even if I concede that the Dallas Estate is part of what the Committee showed them while walking the property, it's clear that M&W didn't recommend it, or find it, as some type of routing exercise that your White Paper asserts. That land was apparently already considered for purchase by the committee, most likely in trying to put together some type of initial routing in conjuction with Hugh Wilson and his team.
What is indisputable is that Merion did NOT buy their property based on some hypothetical, "expert", proposed routing by Macdonald and Whigham.
That isn't strike one. That's a no-hitter.