Sorry to leave you guys hanging but I just got back from a terrific Lakers game.
David,
Now you're not going to surprise me and tell me that Hugh Wilson decided to design a Road Hole there, are you?!
Nah, the land swap meant that there was less impingement on the drive, although it would be nice to discover a road hole on Merion.
Bryan, except that while they swapped for the land they kept the impingement on the drive only moreso. They even built sand and grass mounds on the corner so that a play over it would be dangerous whether or not one actually had to cut over an out-of-bounds.
Does the hole described in this passage remind anyone of any particular hole, strategically?
"The best way to play it is to "cross a fence before you come to it." In other words the shortest route to the green is across the corner of somebody's corn lot, with an open shot to the green if the carry is made, and a half dozen assorted shots back to the fairway if the ball falls short. The golfer who plays safe by taking the dog-leg journey to the right toward the green will hardly reach his destination in two strokes, as there is a pit just short of the green directly in his path, and placed there for the express purpose of thwarting his intentions." Sure sounds like a Road Hole to me, at a fundamental strategic level, that is. It needs a terraced green and trouble behind to catch those carelessly flying over the "pit" at the front and right, but as described elsewhere, it had this as well. Even the trade for the land makes sense, as the one thing that CBM did not like about the original road hole was that was the out-of-bounds.
Granted, it doesnt look like a Raynor or Macdonald built road hole, but it wasn't, it was built by the men of Merion, so I wouldn't expect it to.
Don't see it? Let me change just a few words but keep the strategic principles the same.
"The best way to play it is to "cross a corner before you come to it." In other words the shortest route to the green is across the corner of an old hotel and garden, with an open shot to the green if the carry is made, and disaster if the ball falls short. The golfer who plays safe by taking the dog-leg journey to the right toward the green will hardly reach his destination in two strokes, as there is a pit just short of the green directly in his path, and placed there for the express purpose of thwarting his intentions." Mike and TomPaul, if your heads haven't exploded yet, consider the hole described in the passage and consider the fundamental strategic concept of a road hole. Surely you recognize the strong strategic similarities.
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TEPaul, Thanks for the quote, although it would be helpful if we knew the author, the date written, and the context. Also, there is an open parens but no close. Where does the parens end, and is the parens your addition or the authors?
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Bryan asked:
Re your real estate transaction information, could either of you decode the transaction for me. Where was the Wheeler estate. I don't see it on the map. Why is the 47 foot strip only 323 feet long. The south boundary of the Eaton estate given up to Merion is over 800 feet long. Dazed and confused.Bryan, I believe there may have been multiple swaps regarding this property, the first one pushing the entire 10 acres closer up to ardmore ave, and extending it east, the second one cutting a notch in the corner, and possibly one later cutting a diagonal. Perhaps the dimensions provided by TEPaul are for the second swap.
The estate was the Smith Estate on the 1908 atlas, then the Eaton Estate in 1913, (but it was the Carver estate for about 18 months in the middle.) It eventually became the Wheeler estate, or at least 1/2 of it did, as it was split in about 1/2 at some point.