Posted for Mike Cirba:
All,
Thank you very much for the nice comments and I’m very pleased and gratified that you found the piece enjoyable, if a bit dry and non-combative.
See Garland…sense of humor intact!
Seriously, I’m glad you all felt it was respectful of both the topic and the GCA participants, past and present.
Bill Brightly wrote: “Geeze, if all you read were the IMO pieces written by David and Mike you'd think there was nothing to argue over...” Bill, it seems from reading other discussions here that most of any remaining disagreement has to do with the timing of the routing, whether it was in the summer/fall of 1910 or the first quarter of 1911.
However, now that it appears from Lesley and Valentine that Hugh Wilson was Chairman of the Green Committee starting in 1909 it seems to be a completely moot point! It is hard to imagine that the Chairman would not have been deeply involved in every golf-related decision at that point, and even harder to imagine that Wilson wasn’t already on the Green Committee for some period prior to being named its Chairman.
One factor that may have kept him off the specific Site Committee, either by choice or simple consideration by the club was that his wife Mary was pregnant with his first daughter Louise at the time, who was born in September of 1910.
As you might imagine, this whole topic is very fascinating to me, almost like a murder mystery with the search through history for clues. For my part, although the timing of the routing really is irrelevant to the question of Wilson’s participation, I do have an opinion, which I’ll share.
I think our understanding of Merion at the time is best served through looking at the Committee and Governance structure. Merion was not a Golf club, per se, but instead an athletic club which was run by the Board of Governors.
Reporting to the Board were various permanent committees from the various sports; the Tennis Committee, the Squash Committee, Cricket, Bowling, Skating, and Golf, of course, as well as various social, entertainment, and administrative committees.
Robert Lesley at the time was Chair of the Golf Committee. The Green Committee reported up to him and Lesley later wrote that Hugh Wilson was Chairman of the Green Committee, beginning in 1909, and we know he resigned due to pressures of business in November 1914. (he later served again after WWI)
To my knowledge, what have been found to date are Merion Cricket Club minutes from the meetings of the Board of Governors. No minutes have been found from Green Committee meetings, yet I have no doubt that they would have recorded those at the time. Matters reaching the Board were matters of the highest importance, usually financially related requiring decision-making in the interest of the club overall.
In that regard, we know that sometime in late 1910 the Board was asked to consider the land acquisition, and subsequently sent out a recommendation to membership notifying them that attractive property had been found, that 117 acres had been “secured” for the golf course and detailing specifics of what would be needed. They also mentioned what has been done for them by Macdonald and Whigham at that point;
The Committee, through Mr. R.E. Griscom, were fortunate enough to get Messrs. C.B. Macdonald and H.J. Wigham(sic)
to come over from New York and give us the benefit of their experience.
These gentlemen, besides being famous golfers, have given the matter of Golf Course construction much study, and are perfectly familiar with the qualities of grasses, soils, etc. It was Mr. Macdonald, assisted by Mr. Wigham, (sic)
who conceived and constructed the National Course at Southampton, Long Island.
After the visit of these gentlemen Mr. Macdonald wrote to a member of the Committee, expressing the views of himself and Mr. Wigham, (sic)
as to what could be done with the property. The report, as made to the Board, embodied Mr. Macdonald’s letter but it was not written for publication. We do not, therefore, feel justified in printing it. We can properly say, however, that it was, in general terms, favorable, and the Committee based its recommendations upon their opinion.I always found it odd that the Committee did not see fit to share the exact contents of Macdonald’s letter with the Board, and those who have read it here would probably all agree that it’s hardly a ringing endorsement. Someone clearly wanted this deal to go through, and it was likely Horatio Lloyd. So, in a sense, I think the Committee used Macdonald and Whigham as expert witnesses to drive the bargain without sharing their specific concerns in that letter.
After that mailing went out to membership, other matters discussed in the minutes was the recommendation of Merion’s counsel, Mr. Cuyler, that Lloyd should take title under his own name, owing to the fact that as of the time of writing, December 21;
In regard to the title of the property the boundaries of the land to be acquired being as
yet uncertain owing to the fact that the golf course has not been definitely located, it
was found advisable that the Haverford Development Company should take the title in
Mr. Lloyd‘s name, so that the lines could be revised subsequently. I would thank you
to let me know as soon as the boundaries have been determined upon.In February of 1911, Hugh Wilson wrote Piper & Oakley for the first time, telling them that 117 acres had been purchased by the club, and that a golf course was going to be built on it.
As we know, in March Wilson’s Committee ventured to NGLA.
The next matter to arrive at the Board of Governors for determination was in April 1911. During that meeting, Robert Lesley read the Golf Committee’s report, which included the language about CBM and Whigham coming back in April to help them select the best of their five plans, how they felt it would be the finest 7 finishing holes of any inland course, etc.. However, Lesley doesn’t ask the Board of Governors to approve that plan, but instead tells them;
In order to accomplish this, it will be necessary to acquire 3 acres additional.Mr. Thompson then motioned;
Whereas the Golf Committee presented a plan showing a proposed layout of the new Golf Ground which necessitated the exchange of a portion of land already purchased for other land adjoining and the purchase of about three acres additional to cost about $7500.00, and asked the approval of this Board, it was on motion. Resolved, that this Board approve of the purchase and exchange, and agree to pay as part of the rental the interest on the additional purchase.The club subsequently purchased slightly over 120 acres, not the original 117, and leased 3 acres of Railroad land near the clubhouse for a total golf course size of 123 acres.
I saw today where Jeff Brauer in the “Merion Clarification” thread in his post #165 made a lot of good points about the timing that I was going to mention, so I won’t repeat or belabor that except to say that I think the timing of what happened, particularly the Francis Swap of land, seems to have been in the spring, in my opinion, as reflected in these minutes.
I also believe that the Merion Green Committee and the Merion Construction Committee were likely synonymous, with the possible exception of Richard Francis who told us he was “added”. Both Griscom and Lloyd had been members of the committee almost since inception of golf at the club, it seems Wilson was a member for a while prior to 1910, and I believe Toulmin was as well.
As further evidence, in his 1934 article, Lesley wrote; Hugh I. Wilson and his Green Committee laid out Merion’s first 18 hole course on the new land and it is what is now known as the “East Course”….a second eighteen hole course, now known as the “West Course”,…was created by Hugh I. Wilson and his associates on the Green Committee.Hope you find this additional information useful. Cheers, and enjoy the US Open!!