Bill and all:
Without having to flesh it out like a factual and legal argument, I guess one of the insinuated "theses" I wished to poll the board about is
1. Whether the old, pre-Raynor 1921 layout of Charlie's isn't very revealing in the biography of American GCA, in that one of its great agitators first made a course that looked more like the steeplechase bowling alleys of what was starting to develop than the sophistication and nuance of studied, imported principles which he and Raynor and Banks became famous for.
Charlie played plenty of golf in the UK all throughout his 1875-1893 so-called "Dark Ages" but the little I know of his Chicago to date seems to say that those trips had little influence when he designed his first 18 hole version.
I have no way of knowing the answer to that, except the aggregate of opinion.
I put it to the board:
Is it possible that Charlie was dissatisfied with what had been developed by he and his cohorts at Wheaton and this inspired him to make real study of courses and architecture when he thought to build another...like the NGLA project?
cheers
vk