"Tom,
Since we know that the committee came up with 5 "new" proposed plans in the spring of 1911, I imagine Mr. Francis was drawing his fingers to the bone."
Mike:
I would imagine he was as he seemed to say as much in that interesting report of his written in 1950 as to how he solved the narrowness problem that created the 15th green and famous 16th hole (Quarry Hole) while mulling over course plans in the late of night, followed by his interesting late night bike ride to Lloyd's house.
It has also always struck me as most interesting that in Macdonald's letter to Lloyd in the end of June, 1910, perhaps 75% of his letter wasn't about architecture or routing but about how to solve the problems of growing some good golf turf on an INLAND compacted farmland site like Merion Ardmore's was. It's also interesting to me that in that letter Macdonald distinctly recommended to Merion that they have a survey map done of the property preparatory to considering the golf course and seemingly that they utilize a surveyor/engineer (in Merion's case, Richard Francis) as Macdonald had done at NGLA with local Southampton resident, Seth Raynor!
It has always been my distinct opinion that when Merion got Macdonald down to Ardmore for those two single days over a period of about nine months, it was not to ask him or have him route or design a golf course for them but to get him to show them how THEY could do a golf course in Pennsylvania using the same basic modus operandi he had been using at NGLA for the last 3-4 years (with a committee of "amateur/sportsmen"---in Macdonald's original letter that was Travis and Whigam) and a professional surveyor/engineer---in Merion's case that being member and good golfer, Richard Francis.