William Flynn's design credit

[Rick Wolffe]

I am sure this may be an old topic, and I'm sorry if I am resurrecting it, but I would like to know which holes at Merion is Flynn generally recognized for design or re-design credit?

[John Kirk]

Rick,

This happens to be a subject which has been discussed at "greater than incredible" length on this site.  There are thousand of entries devoted to Merion's evolution.

My recommendation is to hit the "search" button on the top of the page, type in "flynn merion" and go from there.

John

[Dan Herrmann]

Rick - Merion East or Merion West?

[TEPaul]

RickW:

You do understand, don't you, that Merion East (and West) was very much a sort of on-going collaborative process? It began and then progressed primarily with Wilson (and committee originally) and then Flynn et al. Flynn became an independent architect fairly early on but he did remain closely connect to Merion (and to the Wilsons, particularly Hugh) for quite a long while, first probably generally on the crew, then as their greenkeeper as he progressively contributed to the course's on-going redesign and improvement cycles.

Generally, we believe (as does Bill Kittleman) that Merion East was not really completed until the early 1930s and we do know it was Flynn from certainly 1925 on that was the one they depended upon architecturally.

We do have a number of Flynn drawings on how proposed changes were made, how holes were changed and improved in various ways, not all but some. If those drawings of Flynn are something you'd take as design credit to him then that's your call, in my opinion.

Let us know. Obviously Wayne Morrison is the best to contact on these kinds of details but I can help. If he thinks I'm wrong on something he will tell me.

[Mike_Cirba]

Hi Rick,

I think it might help simply to look at the design evolution of any given hole between 1912 and the time it was "finished", which as Tom Paul mentions was over a lengthy period up til the early 30s.   If there are specific holes that you are wondering about, perhaps we can discuss about any or all you have questions about, or is your question more general in nature, as in trying to determine whether what's there today is primarily Flynn, Wilson, or any others?

Personally, I was surprised a few years back to see early drawings of the course by 1916 that show most of the holes pretty close to today's, and certainly by 1924 the course was about 80-90% or so like today's course.   Since Wilson died in early 1925, it can probably be fairly said that any of the changes done for the 1930 US Amateur were likely Flynn's sole idea, but before then it seems to have been a work in progress, with mostly Wilson at the helm.

Joe Bausch recently came across a news article talking about the changes done for the 1924 US Am, which led to the creation of today's holes 10, 11, 12, & 13, and the article was pretty speciific that Hugh Wilson was the guy who spearheaded and oversaw this work, although it also made very clear that Wilson was a very humble man who preferred to stay out of the limelight and work in the shadows.   I'm quite sure he would have been perfectly happy if others had been given credit, and seemed the type who would also have minimized his own role to give others credit if they helped.

Of course, there is little doubt that Flynn was a valuable and instrumental part of the course that was created at Merion East, as he was almost there since the beginning, and early news accounts talk about his professionalism, his knowledge of agronomy, his business sense and frugality, and others mention his architectural acumen.   As Tom mentioned, Wayne's the expert with the details, but I think that's a fairly accurate overall assessment.