Jeffrey:
I have definitely considered what you said in your Post #422 for about two years now but to date have hesitated to mention my opinion because there is no actual and factual evidence to suppoort it and there are enough on here who are very touchy on anythng to do with the subject of Macdonald.
But Macdonald surely did seem fixated on that 3 acre P&W land where the original 12th green and part of the 13th (not the green) was located.
And after all he did say to MCC on April 6, 1911 that he felt the plan he approved contained the best last SEVEN holes of any inland course in the world, and so that included the original 12th green and part of the 13th hole across the creek from the Johnson property on the P&W land which was later leased.
And it is definitely not lost on me that within ten years Merion gave up on those two holes (the original 12th green and 13th hole).
Actually, Jeffrey, if those two holes were part of any of the five different plans that Wilson and his committee wanted then why did they wait until April 19, 1911 to ask the MCC board to lease them? Maybe THAT was something CBM insisted on again on April 6, 1911 and maybe the Wilson Committee had holes there that were something like what is there now (the present 13th) and just wanted to go back to that and did ten years later. That would've made #12 pretty short though but who really knows when they first had their eye on that 7 1/2 acres that eventually became the second half of #11 and the first half of #12?
I also note that if any architect back then seemed inclined to use roads and cross them it sure was C.B. Macdonald!!
But I do qualify all of what I just said on this post by saying I have no actual factual evidence for it and so it just falls into the category of speculation but at least I'm not trying to pass speculation off as fact as a couple of others on here try to do so often.
But back in the old days when things were friendlier on here and Wayne Morrison was on here I do also note that he put a thread or post on here that it was his distinct impression that it sure didn't take Merion or Wilson and Flynn long to basically separate themselves and their Merion East golf course from Macdonald's National Style and even from the idea of template holes with their actual names from abroad.
I think one of the reasons this whole debate came up about Merion's 3rd is that those who know the history of that course do know that hole was once referred to as Merion's "redan" but frankly it isn't anymore and hasn't been for many, many decades.
I personally think Wayne was very right back then when he said it was his opinion that Merion was pulling away from both Macdonald and his style and very much going with its own style that included a pretty novel bunker style for an INLAND (meaning clay based soil) American golf course of that age and era!