Mike Cirba,
1. I don't think one can cleanly split the process into two parts. It all depended upon the circumstance. While questions of attribution are generally secondary to me, the same goes there. And while you may want to break it out into design and construction, what matters is how they "broke it out" at the time, and they did not simply break it out into design and construction.
2. I did not switch my position on Hugh Wilson's involvement at Cobb's Creek. It seems like he was probably involved in the design process. I don't recall ever writing otherwise. I think perhaps you read way to much into my words.
3. Likewise, I don't have to switch my position on Wilson at Merion. While accepted lore has Wilson visiting NGLA for travel advice, my essay has him "working out the particulars of the plan" with Macdonald and Whigham at NGLA. " Working out the particulars of the plan' sounds like involvement to me, and sounds pretty accurate based on the information I had and have.
4. The last paragraph in the article you just posted is quoted verbatim in my essay. I find it strange that you keep introducing these articles into the discussion as if they shed some new light on the subject.
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Kirk,
As I said in my post above (that has been buried under a couple pages already), I cannot imagine that Alan Wilson was thinking of Barker when he wrote what he did in 1926. Barker had not been mentioned for a very long time. Plus, I have seen no evidence that Alan Wilson was at all involved with the early planning, so he may not even have known who Barker was.
If anyone, Alan Wilson was most likely concerned with Flynn. Flynn was around in 1926, and as I said, at least one detailed Merion drawing was published in 1926 that said "Plan by William S. Flynn, Golf Course Architect."
Same logic applies to Tillinghast's article 8 years later.
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Tom Paul,
Your latest round of insults directed at Tom Macwood are completely out of line. They would be in any situation, but are especially so here because you are the one who seems a bit confused, not MacWood.
While we may now be getting a better idea of when Flynn first started at Merion, it was very much confused until very recently (and still may be.) I recall reading somewhere that Wayne credited Flynn as codesigner of Merion West. Also, according to Merion's history, Flynn supervised the construction and had been a groundskeeper with the Cricket Club and the first groundskeeper at Merion East.
So it is not Tom MacWood who is confused about Flynn. It was Merion itself, and you and Wayne. Given that Merion Lore has him there since before the course started, and given that even you guys had him co-designing the West, it is would have been entirely reasonable for Alan Wilson to worry that Flynn would take spotlight that was rightfully Hugh's.
In fact it looks to me as if Alan Wilson was pretty prophetic and had reason to be concerned, at least over the long hall. I havent read the Flynn manuscript, but isn't this exactly what you and Wayne have done at Merion? Shift the spotlight from Hugh to Flynn?
No wonder Alan Wilson and later Tillinghast where coming to Hugh Wilson's defense!
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Lastly, Tom, before you get too far aflutter with your attacks on MacWood regarding HDC, you may want to recall some of the positions you took on over the past few months. Also, you might want to recall where you first learned much of what you now are trying to use to support your personal shots at Tom MacWood.