Tom MacWood,
I have one other question for you which I've never understood.
You don't believe David's theory about the course being designed prior to November 15, 1910 and don't believe the Francis Swap happened before then so whenever we go down this road and ask why you think Barker designed it instead sometime after November you answer something to the effect of "these were smart guys who wouldn't have used an untested architect" for their course, citing Wilson's lack of experience.
But, that's not what they did, actually, is it?
What they did is they did it themselves, right? Five of the best six golfers in terms of playing ability within the club, and five guys with a load of experience in golf generally for over a decade, and five very successful men in their own fields, and five of the most traveled golfers were put on the committee to design and build the new course.
Why do you see that as unusual, considering that in 1910, ALL OF THE courses in the United States that were deemed to be of top-quality were done by club amateurs themselves?
You had Leeds at Myopia, you had Travis and Emmet at Garden City, and then you had Macdonald with Emmet and some early Travis at NGLA, which just had its soft opening tournament in July 1910 and didn't open until the next year.
Those were the three courses mentioned in virtually every article...saying that Merion was going to create a course as good as those renowned courses designed by amateurs.
In addition, you had Fownes' place at Oakmont, you had Crump and some of his Philly friends itching to build a quality course where they could play winter golf, and you had Tilllinghast up doing Shawnee.
ALL of these guys knew each other, shared ideas, and they seemed to be coming down to the idea that if you wanted it done right, you had to do it yourself!
Tom...as much as you want to give credit to those early professionals like Barker, the fact is that they had not come up with a top quality course after about fifteen years of effort. That wasn't their fault...the problem was the the whole methodology and idea that for $25 you could have a pro come in for a day, walk about your property, put some stakes on the ground, leave some construction instructions, and voila!, you had yourself a good golf course.
Instead, these amateur club guys were very into it...they had time, money ,and motivation, and they shared ideas and sought each others expertise and then used top-line construction guys like Fred Pickering, who gets lost in this conversation.
So, if every top-flight golf course in the US in 1910 was designed by Amateurs from their own clubs, why in the world do you find it the least surprising that Merion would have done the exact same thing? After all, it wasn't only Wilson, although for reasons we can only speculate at he was named to head the committee, but it was also Lloyd, Griscom, Toulmin, and Francis....five top level players, all with decades of experience in the game, and men motivated to build a great golf course for their club.
Compare that against a $25 walk around the property with stakes and their motivations become very clear and not surprising in the least.