Jeff,
Is it in any way significant to you that the committee only took CBM / HJW to one site?
Also, for the Dallas deed to be transferred in October, when do you think they verbally agreed with the executor of Mr. Dallas' estate to buy his land? August?
Jim,
Not at all, even if David's events happen to be the correct interpretation.
They were going to buy land along the main line, where they were going to locate the course because their membership already lived there (unlike NGLA where CBM would develop the membership, and even then, being too far out was a consideration)
They got a sweetheart offer for land at sub-market value from a developer. Would you take CBM to some other land that would cost you 2-3X to build your golf course? Frankly, the land was good for golf, but just gently rolling like most other land along the main line. There were no alternate ocean front or Pine Valley sites to choose from where they were committed to build.
This is how most golf course deals in history go down. It is just wrong to compare the unique NGLA model to other courses, and even if you did, please recall that CBM first offered on 120 acres WITHOUT doing a routing plan that he mentioned. He lucked into the ideal situation, but he didn't expect it. We do not know just how much evaluation of that 120 acres he did, but I suspect it was a lot like what happened at Merion, making sure it was of regular dimensions, making sure it enclosed some good features to use, and probably, leaving some wiggle room.
I agree that they were talking, secretively through their buyer about the land for a long time, and the deal was announced earlier than the actual purchase, which I thought was in October, but Mike corrects me that it was November, when things then obviously started moving quickly.
The question is whether they would have sent the surveyors out there, etc. I wouldn't say the actual sale date precudes earlier work, but do believe the secretiveness they used might - if word got out, the seller could always change their mind until the names were on the dotted line.
Mike,
Your parsing of Francis words makes sense to me, but like the swallows returning to Capistrano, David has come out to tell us just how evil you are in twisting yet another bit of the Merion records. BTW, did you notice that when I impolitely caught him changing the record, he doesn't even mention it, apolgize, whatever? Like everything else, he just ignores the inconvenient truth.
BTW, from the private emails we have all been getting, it appears that David has finally pissed off Merion enough for them to undertake their own point by point rebuttal. It might be as logical a spot as any to hand off the battle to those more closely invested in what David has been saying about them all these past few years.
I thhink you hae done your job! Time to bow out because there is no sense being a diaper to the baby that is David.