You wrote, "Merion was different than your Tillinghast example, because, while Wilson laid the course out upon the ground, he was not the one who had planned where the holes should be laid out..."
The problem I have with this statement is that you can not state that anyone else DID plan "where the holes would be laid out" as there is nothing written by anyone that shows this. The Barker design is missing so there is no way to show that his proposal was followed, there is and never has been a drawing or design produced by Macdonald that has been found or can be shown, yet you categorically state that Wilson didn't do it despite the fact the he laid out the course on the ground and there are drawings produced later that verify this, exactly the same way that Tilly and others were designing courses at the same time, including ROSS.
I knew I'd get in trouble for using Ross. I just didn't want to use anyone actually involved, and TEPaul doesnt care much for Mr. X, so I used Ross. But it was Dean Ross, not Donald.
I beg to differ with your characterization that Wilson laid out the course like Tilly and others. Because these guys were planning on the go, but Wilson was not. For one thing, he went to NGLA to meet with M&W first. For another, Barker and M&W had already provided their views on what could be done with the property. For another, there is evidence that he did not start on the project until AFTER the basic routing was in place, and no evidence that he started before this.
You seem to think that unless another routing is located then we must assume that Wilson routed the course. But we can determine the timing of Wilson's involvement without reference to the
whether it was Macdonald or Barker or both who thought the plateau next to the old barn should be a Redan.
Here is another silly hypothetical. I could be wrong, but I think Wayne has written that Flynn did not work on the creation of Merion. Do we have to find a routing by someone before we say that, based on Wayne's information, Flynn did not route the course? Of course not, because the routing was done before he was on the project.
The same logic applies with Wilson. He was not on the project until after the holes were in place on the routing plan. So he could not have done the initial routing.
And the truth or falsity does not depend on finding a routing plan. (By the way, there is no Wilson routing plan of which I am aware.)
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"A few years after the organization of the National, three older members of the Apawamis Club came to the weary but reluctant conclusion that they needed a course which would be easier to walk. The three were E. C. Converse, W. Hamblen Childs and Frederick S. Wheeler. They assembled a group of 160 Founders, of which Findlay Douglas was one, and organized the Blind Brook Club, in nearby Port Chester, in 1916. Although this was to be unashamedly an easy-walking course for older men, it was to be designed and built by Charles B. Macdonald and his assistant Seth Raynor. However, Macdonald and Raynor lost interest in building a course in that conception, so Findlay Douglas, as Chairman-designate of the Green Committee, built it with the assistance of George Low, the professional at the Baltusrol Golf Club and an architect of parts."
Peter
Peter,
Interesting quote, and one that begs the question of whether CBM ever bragged about designing Blind Brook Club. Given that he or Raynor did not build it, I doubt he did, but am curious if anyone has information to the contrary.
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Frankly, guys, I really didn't want to bring something this general up until afterwards and I'm trying to get some conformation from some people who would know more but C.B. MacDonald may never have provided a decent routing plan or hole drawings in his entire career in golf acrchitecture even with the courses he really was personally involved in or took architectural credit for, including on his own life-long dedication and personal favorite, NGLA. So to think he would've done that himself even remotely comprehensively for Merion in a fewy days doesn't make sense to me and it never has! Most of us know, for that---eg plans and drawings, he almost always depended on Seth Raynor. And Seth Raynor never came to Merion on either visit Macdonald made for the purposes of advising architecturally.
I've been involved with the architectural evolution and history of The Creek Club, a club Macdonald was intimately involved in not just creating it but as a central member of it. To date we have never seen anything on it drawn by Macdonald and that was a club he was very involved in as a member, committee person and even the president of the Kellenworth Corporation that owned the land.
If this is the case then you answered your own question and that of others as well.
Many have made a big deal out of the "fact" that Macdonald sent a letter but not a map. (Frankly we dont know this to be the case, but lets assume it was a letter with words only.
If he never drew out a routing plan, then why would you ahve expected him to a Merion. Whether he could draw or not is not the issue. The issue is whether he communicated their views on could be done with the land, and the Committee says he did this.
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But now, I am becoming more and more convinced that CBM had virtually nothing to do with the routing of the golf course...certainly advised on the best values of golf holes and where to find them and maybe even how to build them, but not the routing...the timing just doesn't work in his favor.
Can you give me a snapshot of what you mean here? Because in my mind the timing very much in his favor.
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TEPaul,
I take no satisfaction in seeing the validity of his essay come apart---like he says he is, all I am or ever was is after the truth.
First, this is absolutely
outrageous. Need I remind you of your of your foolish behavior last time you prematurely proclaimed the death of my essay?
Second, and more importantly, the validity of my essay is stronger than ever.
And the validity of your counter argument looses credibility every time you pronounce my essay is dead but then fail to offer anything new or novel by way of facts or reasoning.
The dimensions of the Johnson Farm are not new or novel. In fact, I am taken aback that you guys did not have this imformation. I specifically recall you mentioning that Merions land was on the old Johnson farm. Likewise, the revelation that the land did not go immediately to Merion Cricket Club is nothing new and changes nothing about the transaction between Merion and HDC.
If facts and logic require that I reconsider part of my essay, then great. But so far, this hasn't happened.