Tom Paul,
"George details grow-in problems in 1907-1908. According to Bahto, Robert White (nice tie-in to the topic) wrote that the problem put them back 18 month, not four years."
The course opened for general play Sept. 1911.
Bahto wrote:
"Soon after the official opening of the course for play, the old hotel burned to the ground."
The hotel fire was in 1909, was it not?
The blow out occurred 1907-1908. The course opened for general play in 1909, at least briefly before the fire. According to Bahto.
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Peter, I don't know about yours being a random selection. There are multiple reports of play over the course starting in 1909. There was a tournament of top golfers there in 1910. There are multiple reports on the conditions of the course throughout and while it sounds like they were not perfect, they were far from a "blow out." The blow out occurred in 1907-1908.
Most importantly, this business about NGLA not being well known or extraordinarily influential before fall of 1911 is absolute agenda driven fantasy. It has no support whatsoever. The course was world famous by1910, and there were multiple reports in the golf trades and in the general press about its greatness. For example, in 1910 Bernard Darwin wrote the following in the London Times:
Everyone has heard of the National Golf Links of America, that monument more enduring that brass . . . . Those who say it is the greatest golf course in the world may be right or wrong, but certainly not to be accused of intemperateness of judgment. . . . The National Golf Links is a truly great course; even as I write this I feel my allegiance to Westward Ho!, to Holylake, to St. Andrews tottering to its fall. Hardly sounds like an unknown course that wouldnt be open for another year, does it?
It is these silly games that reveals TEPaul, Wayne, and Cirba for what they are. No one in their right mind could actually look at the history and then honestly claim that NGLA was not extraordinarily influential before the fall of 1911. It is beyond the realm of possibility.
They began building in 1907. In 1908 they had to rebuild the greens. The course opened for play in 1909, with the hotel briefly acting as the clubhouse. Then the hotel burned down. The new clubhouse was finished in Sept 1911 and was officially opened with an invitiational tourney then.
Keep in mind that CBM was constantly tinkering with the course, and substantial changes were already being made during this time period. For example, here is a photo from the 1910 article linked above:
Note that the green is right behind the bunker. If I recall correctly, the hole had already been modified with the green pushed substantially back by 1911 or thereabouts. So yes there was work going on the course. Same as at Merion and most of these other courses. They tinkered and tinkered and tinkered. But they were golfing on the course in 1909.
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By the way Peter. Tell me what you think of that bunker style? Overly-manufactured? Unnatural? A Macdonald bunker?