I apologize in advance for the long post.
Did Hugh Wilson's Trip Abroad Influence of the Initial Design of Merion East?
Tom Doak wrote:
"[N]o one really knows anything close to the whole truth of who is responsible for what on a golf course construction site, much less one that was built 100 years ago. People can research and speculate ... for example we now know when Hugh Wilson actually went overseas. But we don't and CAN'T know much about what he saw and where it influenced his work at Merion." That is all true. But while we cannot know everything, there is an awful lot we can know and ought to know before we even begin to consider the respective roles MacDonald, Wilson, and others might have played in the initial creation of Merion East.
For instance, we know that
Wilson's overseas trip could not possibly have had much of any influence over the initial design and construction of Merion East, because the course was laid out on the ground before Wilson went abroad:
-- We know that, approximately a year before Wilson travelled abroad, Merion's Board of Governors decided to built the golf course according to a layout plan approved by C.B. Macdonald and H. J. Whigham, and all 18 holes were routed, constructed and seeded
before Wilson went abroad. Surely some finishing touches were added after Wilson returned and before the course opened, but the bones of the course (including the tees, greens, fairways, and at least some of the major artificial features) were already in place - designed, built and seeded - before Wilson traveled abroad.
-- We know that, reportedly, the initial course had been significantly influenced by the great overseas golf holes
before Hugh Wilson ever traveled abroad. For example, in April 1912, it was reported that,
"Many of the holes at Merion are patterned after the famous holes abroad . . .." This was close to a month before Hugh Wilson returned to America.
Was Merion East Based on the Famous Holes Abroad like NGLA?
This brings us to the issue of supposed "template holes" (a wholly inadequate description in this case) at Merion. Tom Doak correctly cautions against the "great tendency in these matters to see things that are not there," but I would add that this caution ought to cut both ways. We shouldn't stretch too far to find "templates" where none might have existed, but we also shouldn't ignore the contemporaneous evidence of the existence of such holes just because they no longer match our modern understandings of such holes.
-- As I mentioned above, even before Wilson returned from his trip abroad many of the holes at Merion East were reported to have been
"patterned after the famous holes abroad." A report at the time the course opened went even further:
“Merion has a course in which nearly every hole is patterned after some famous hole abroad." In fact, multiple reports at the opening and for years after mentioned that at least some of the holes were based on great holes abroad.
-- One such example was Merion's current 3rd Hole, about which Charlie wrote "maybe #3 is a reverse redan, sort of." Many modern observers would strongly disagree Charlie's assessment because the green doesn't slope enough from front to back to fit in with our modern understanding of a proper "redan." Yet various contemporaneous reports (and reports for many years thereafter) leave no doubt that, initially, this hole was meant to be (and considered to be) a reversed Redan.
-- Likewise, there were other contemporaneous accounts of what we would call "templates" on the initial course at Merion East.
Contemporaneous reports indicate that there was not just a "Redan," but also an "Alps," a "Road Hole," and an "Eden" green. Also, the 14th green at Merion featured
a double plateau green with a swale running vertically through the center of the green, creating plateaus on each side. I believe many other such CBM "tells" existed as well, but I''ll set that aside for now so as to avoid speculation.
While others can speculate how these (and other) features might have ended up on the initial course at Merion East, I'll again try stick to what we do know based on Merion's own records and the reports of those in a position to know. Among other things:
-- Before Merion purchased the land, C.B. Macdonald and H.J. Whigham had gone over the land at Merion's request, and according to Merion's Board, Merion purchased the land "based largely" on CBM's and HJW's advice;
-- CBM spent two days with Wilson (and others) working on the layout plan and going over the various holes at NGLA; and
-- Just a few weeks after the NGLA meeting, CBM and HJ Whigham returned to Merion to again go over the land and to choose and approve the final routing plan, and Merion set out to build the course according to this plan.
Draw your own conclusions.
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Tom Doak,
Given that I am trying to avoid too much attenuated speculation, I hesitate to get too much into a discussion about other potential CBM 'tells' at Merion East. That said, I will briefly discuss the 13th Hole since your explanation to Charlie doesn't quite tell the whole story.
George speculated that the current 13th was bunkered like a short hole "though the green is small," and while you correctly pointed out that the 13th hole was not an original hole, you don't mention is that the original 13th hole was also a short par three of around 130 yards. From what I can gather, the original featured a much larger, undulating green and was described at the time as completely surrounded by trouble. From a description of the opening:
"The thirteenth a short lob of 130 yards. The green is surrounded by water and sand hazards." While the original 13th featured Cobb's Creek instead of bunkers on three of its sides, it is perhaps not a complete stretch to wonder if CBM might have had something to do with the inclusion of such a hole at Merion. (There are a few other reasons to
speculate about whether or not CBM might have envisioned a short hole in the original location behind the clubhouse, but I'll leave that aside for now.) Suffice it to say that the original 13th was a short lob to a large green surrounded by trouble. While you would know better than me, I am pretty sure I have an old photo of the Short hole at Mid Ocean in the Bahamas, and that it also featured water as the hazard around a substantial portion of the green.
[Also Tom, purely as an I aside, I wonder if perhaps you might be understating Hugh Wilson's involvement when the changes to Nos. 10-13 in the early 1920s. The evidence with which I am familiar points to Hugh Wilson as being primarily responsible for those changes. But perhaps that is for a different conversation.]
Added: Here is a photo of Merion's original 13th Green taken sometime between the opening and the 1916 Amateur. Note the green was quite large and was plateaued above Cobb's Creek, which crosses in front and then wraps around the right side and back of the green. The bunker(s) to the left of the green are not visible in the picture, but they are visible in other photos.
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Jeff Brauer,
I know that you mean well, but your recollection of what I (and others) have written in the past is not accurate. For example, I have not written "that spring 1912 trip coincided with building/rebuilding the features" or that there was any sort of initial "rush to seed," nor do I consider such statements to be remotely accurate. There are other errors as well, but I'd rather not get into another back and forth with you. Rather, I beg of you to please refrain from putting words in my mouth, especially if merely "from memory."
Thanks.