John Stiles,
Sorry I missed your post, it got temporarily lost in the shuffle.
Not sure what arguments or documents you are relying on to reach your conclusions, so I will just let them be and focus on your questions.
So my question is, exploring from another angle previously discussed but now I have forgotten, did Macdonald or Whigham ever take credit for anything at Merion ?
After Macdonald passed away in 1939, H. J. Whigham (his son-in-law) authored an obituary for Country Life Magazine, in which he discussed NGLA in detail then listed some other of the best-known courses designed by one or both of Macdonald and Raynor. Here is the passage, with my bolds added:
"The Macdonald-Raynor courses became famous all over America. Among the most famous are Piping Rock, the Merion Cricket Club at Philadelphia, the Country Club of Saint Louis, two beautiful courses at White Sulphur, the Lido (literally poured out of the lagoon), and that equally amazing Yale course at New Haven, which was hewn out of rock and forest at the expense of some seven hundred thousand dollars."H.J. Whigham was the 1896 United States Amateur Champion Golfer and one of the foremost authors and experts on golf courses in America and abroad. He helped Macdonald route NGLA and was involved in its creation. The two of them co-authored the 1914 series on ideal golf holes (including the Alps and the Redan) for Golf Illustrated. Outside of golf, he was an expert, author, and commentator on foreign affairs, a reporter, a war correspondent, an author on architecture, editor of Metropolitan Magazine and Town and Country, and golf editor of Country Life. I am sure there is more, but I don't know it offhand.
More importantly,
H.J. Whigham was there.
- He was there with June 1910 when Merion brought H.J. Whigham and C.B. Macdonald in to inspect the potential golf site.
- He was there at NGLA in March 1911, when Wilson and his Committee traveled to NGLA so that CBM and HJW could teach them about the underlying fundamental principles of the great golf holes, and how these kinds of holes fit onto the natural features in at Ardmore.
- He was there in April 1911 when Merion brought CBM and HJW back to Ardmore to review the land again and to choose the final routing.
Bottom line is that
H.J. Whigham knew first-hand who came up with the hole concepts and placement for Merion East. He knew first-hand that CB Macdonald was the creative driving force behind the routing and hole concepts. We have no reason to doubt him.
- So far as I know, Hugh Wilson never claimed to have come up with the hole concepts or the routing.
- So far as I know, Hugh Wilson never wrote anything that contradicts Whigham on this issue. In fact, while Hugh Wilson's 1916 work doesnt ever directly address the issue of who was primarily responsible for the routing and hole concepts, his account is entirely consistent with Whigham's.
- No one who was there contradicts Whigham wrote anything necessarily contradicting Whigham.
Some dismiss Whigham's word as the emotional blubbering of a grief-stricken son-in-law [Ironically, these same people hold up the Alan Wilson letter, written after his younger brother's untimely death, as a holy grail.] They obviously haven't considered the man or his life experiences. Whigham didn't just sob out his father-in-law's eulogy, he authored important obituaries for such notable men as President Theodore Roosevelt.
So yes, there is written proof that Merion East is a CBM course. H.J. Whigham, tell us so. He was not only there, he was knew what was going on, and he knew how to accurately describe it. Discarding his word is a sham.
Did they (M or W) ever say the Merion lads built a great Alps hole, or the Merion lads used our routing, or the Merion boys should have used our routing, or anything ?
In Macdonald's and Whigham's article on NGLA's Redan in Golf Illustrated, they list Merion's "reverse redan" along with the Redan at Piping Rock and the Redan at Sleepy Hollow (both CBM courses.) The only other American course they mention was a short hole at the unfinished Pine Valley, which utilized the Redan principle. I don't know whether CBM or Whigham had even seen Merion's finished Redan hole when they wrote this. [An aside. Whigham's treatment of Pine Valley is an interesting contrast to his treatment of Merion. If I recall correctly, Whigham noted that CBM had visited Pine Valley's site and made a number of recommendations, but that only a few of them had been followed, and that Pine Valley was primarily a Crump course, and that CBM felt that it was NGLA's main competitor for best course in the country. Whigham knew that a site visit and recommendations did not make it CBM's course, even if a few were followed. Query whether the "redan principle" green was one of CBM's suggestions that Pine Valley followed.]
CBM and HJW's article on the Alps does not mention Merion's Alps, but I don't think it mentions any Alps except the ones at NGLA and Prestwick.
Would have to believe that Macdonald, being such a headstrong individual, would have taken credit if he really thought that he deserved credit. By the time he wrote 'Scotland's Gift - Golf' published in 1928, wasn't it true that Wilson was credited with the architecture of Merion East ?
I don't think your assumptions are supported by the facts.
I have no reason to believe that CBM would have taken credit or sought credit. Contrary to the caricature that Wayne and TEPaul and others have created, I don't think he was only in it for his own aggrandizement. Don't get me wrong, he was headstrong, opinionated, and had an ego, but he also cared about Golf in America, and seems to have tried to act in its best interests. Remember, he was an amateur, so whatever he did for Merion or any other club, it he did it for some other reason than compensation.
I have a few reasons to think that he would NOT have sought credit in the manner you suggest. First, I believe I have read that he designed or helped design other courses, but I don't think he ever sought or took credit for a course that he and Raynor did not build. He didn't build Merion. Second, in Scotland's Gift, Macdonald does NOT discuss all of his courses, nor does he provide any lists of his courses or his designs. So I wouldn't have expected him to Mention Merion.
David is only working with a dozen lines (counting newspaper articles) about M&W, and then it only mentions their visits to help or some such.
I am definitely at a disadvantage with the documents, especially because many of the most important documents are being concealed from me by Wayne and TEPaul. But I am at a big advantage in that my concern is getting at the truth, no matter what it is, so in the long run I am already dormy. I feel very good about what I know and what I don't know.
There is plenty of information out there, and it is just a matter of putting the pieces together. Even the fact that Tom and Wayne are trying to hide certain things helps me more than they realize.
Anyway, thanks for the questions. I hadn't thought about H.J. Whigham in a while, and he was one hell of an impressive person, so it is always fun to share what little I have read or heard about him.
I hope my answers have helped.
DM