For anyone who asked why Richard Francis rode his bicyle the one mile to Lloyd's house at midnight instead of riding to Hugh Wilson's house six miles away and see that as some evidence that Wilson wasn't responsible, I find it very telling that none of you even seriously entertained or considered that Francis should have first contacted the actual supposed designer, Charles B. Macdonald. I guess deep down you guys aren't really buying it either.
Didn't Macdonald have a phone?
But let's continue to assume that Francis and Lloyd were simply following Macdonald's bidding and helping to lay out Macdonald's course on the ground and it's before November 1910.
Francis stated that they had no trouble laying out the first 13 holes (which are all south of the clubhouse) and needed to try and figure out how to fit in the final five holes in the remaining property they had originally purchased.
We also know from Francis that the land they eventually traded that was to become real estate "was not part of ANY golf layout", being considered, so we know it's not part of the existing course.
They had now laid out the first four holes of the back nine, and had already used up one of their par threes on the 13th behind the clubhouse. Given their desires to create a championship course, surely they wanted a strong finish.
In fact, in his July 1910 letter to Mr. Lloyd, CB Macdonald talked about utilizing the quarry as well as the limitations of the acreage;
Dear Mr. Lloyd:
Mr. Whigham and I discussed the various merits of the land you propose buying, and we think it has some very desirable features. The quarry and the brooks can be made much of. What it lacks in abrupt mounds can be largely rectified....
The most difficult problem you have to contend with is to get in eighteen holes that will be first class in the acreage you propose buying. So far as we can judge, without a contour map before us, we are of the opinion that it can be done, provided you get a little more land near where you propose making your Club House. The opinon that a long course is always the best course has been exploded. A 6000 yd. course can be made really first class, and to my mind it is more desirable than a 6300 or a 6400 yd. course, particularly where the roll of the ball will not be long, because you cannot help with the soil you have on that property having heavy turf. Of course it would be very fast when the summer baked it well.
The following is my idea of a 6000 yard course:
One 130 yard hole
One 160 "
One 190 "
One 220 yard to 240 yard hole,
One 500 yard hole,
Six 300 to 340 yard holes,
Five 360 to 420 "
Two 440 to 480 "So, we know that Macdonad thought they could probably do quite a bit with the quarry as a hazard.
So, I have to ask, if David's theory is correct that they had to swap for the entire land of the triangle, the obvious question is why did they buy so little land around the quarry in the first place?
Other than the land owned by Haverford College, they had option on land as far north as College Avenue.
Why would they have stopped far short, just a scant SIXTY FIVE YARDS beyond the quarry!?!? This admittedly "confusing" map does have the benefit of being able to point out the absurdity of what has been proposed, however;
The areas encircle in red shows the area of the first 13 original holes that Francis tells us that had not much problem locating.
I've removed the top triangle because David tells us that NONE of this land was in their control yet.
Any other land they might have owned is not indicated because Francis tells us it wasn't on any of their proposed layouts.
The yellow highlighted area is the large quarry, unplayable for golf.
The orange line is an admittedly crude and slightly too far eastward attempt to delineate the original property line.
But, the area of focus is what I've highlighted in BLUE. To believe David's theory, one has to accept that both Macdonald and Whigham and the Merion Committee had first recommended they only buy this short-sighted parcel of property and now all were engaged in an exercise in futility by trying to get the FINAL FIVE HOLES of their championship course into this area, and had already used up one of their back nine par threes on the 13th.
What's worse, they had somehow already conceived of some abomination of a golf course layout where the FINAL FIVE HOLES were somehow squeezed into this area!!As an exercise, I would ask anyone out there, including professional architects playing at home, to try to design a final five holes using only one par three in this acreage. I'd also like someone, perhaps Bryan Izatt who seems to know how to capture better screen shots from Google Earth than I do, to provide a better map to work from, and then can also probably calculate total usable acreage around that quarry.
Remember also that the final 5 today makes up a daunting, lengthy finish befitting a championship course, so please use that as a guideline in what you create.
Finally...
I have to ask...
Why is it that Richard Francis never mentioned Charles Macdonald or HJ Whigham, or gave them any credit at all for their design?
Why didn't he pick up the phone and call Macdonald "The Designer", as David sarcastically referred to Hugh Wilson last night when in fact Lloyd owned the land and I'm sure Francis knew he'd need to get approval from.
What do we know Francis said about the design attribution of Merion East? We know he never mentioned CB Macdonald in any recorded account.
Well, besides his 1950 verbal record, we do have two other sources who spoke to Francis and were there at the time;
"On his return the plan was gradually evolved and while largely helped by many excellent suggestions and much good advice from the other members of the Committee, they have each told me that he is the person in the main responsible for the ARCHITECTURE of this and the West Course. - Alan Wilson 1926
"Mr Wilson has spent many hours of careful study, and has devoted every moment of his spare time in laying out and constructing this course. He has been ably assisted by the members of the Committee, but there is no one who has devoted the time and energy and real hard work on it that he has. - H.P Baily letter to Merion proposing special gift to Wilson 1913