Joe,
Awesome, awesome find!
This article proves beyond any doubt that "Far and Sure" from American Golfer was indeed A.W. Tillinghast.
His description of the newly-opened Merion course is almost verbatim with the January 1913 article by "Far and Sure" which was the subject of much discussion and debate here during the Merion wars.
Even descriptions such as the player having to "skittle" the ball on the 15th are precise and should clear up this matter once and for all.
For comparsion purposes, here is the American Golfer article in question;
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1913/ag93m.pdfPerhaps more importantly, it also now places Tillinghast as the only man who wrote about the new course at Merion before it was built, right after it opened, and then again for historical purposes some decades later. As such, as I wrote in a thread I started six months ago (without definitive proof at the time), A.W. Tillinghast tells us exactly who designed the course at Merion East.
On April 30, 1911, right after Macdonald and Whigham's second visit to Merion,
(right after the selection of the best of the five routings and before construction on the course began) , Tillinghast wrote;
"Recently I heard several players disucssing the prospects of the new course at Merion, and one stated that in his opinion it was futile to endeavor to produce a championship course in the vicinity of Philadelphia because the conditions were so unfavorable - the character of the soil, rank native grasses, worms, etc., etc."
"This is sheer folly. The conditions about this section are not at all iimpossible; as a matter of fact, they are rather good - not as easily handled as some other parts of the country, but on the whole, very satisfactory..."
"I have SEEN enough of the plans of the new course as to warrant my entire confidence in the future realization of the hopes of the committee."In the American Golfer article linked above, where he uses the exact wording of Robert Lesley, Alan Wilson, and others describing Macdonald and Whigham's role as "advisory", Tillinghast states;
"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."Tillinghast told us that he had seen the plans, and now he's seen the newly-opened course, still in progress, and tells us that the man who conceived of the holes is Hugh Wilson.
If any lingering doubts remain, Tillinghast wrote even more directly in 1934 during the US Open when he penned;
“There was peculiar pleasure in revisiting Merion after an interval of years for I have known the course since its birth. Yet, with it all, there was keen regret that my old friend Hugh Wilson had not lived to see such scenes as the National Open unfolded over the fine course that he loved so much. It seemed rather tragic to me, for so few seemed to know that the Merion course was PLANNED and developed by Hugh Wilson, a member of the club who possessed a decided flair for golf architecture. Today the great course at Merion, and it must take place along the greatest in America, bears witness to his fine intelligence and rare vision.” So there you have it.
First hand, contemporaneous, eye-witness, expert testimony from one of the greatest architects in history, telling us exactly who designed Merion.
And to that I say, thank God!
