Hubris and a point of honor.
In my interview with Ran I speak of the importance of approaching information with “fresh eyes” and give some detailed experiences that I’ve seen during the course of the research work I have done for some clubs.
Well, I can now I fully understand the depth of my own statement on how one can make mistakes in properly understanding for I’ve fallen into the same trap myself. As a result it turns out that some of the details in the story behind the Tillinghast sketches were incorrect.
So, as a point of honor I am coming forward to admit the mistake, explain how it occurred and detail the actual events as they happened doing so directly from photographs of pages from the 1901 journal of Dr. David Scott-Taylor. I intend to answer any and all questions that may/will be asked and any criticisms leveled against me I will accept as being well-earned.
This is the genesis of the mistake’s discovery. At the beginning of this past week David Moriarty sent me a private email cc’ed to Ran in which he challenged the May 11, 2001, date for Tilly having been to St. Andrews. He said that he checked on shipping manifests and found only one and that it showed that Tilly and his wife arriving in Liverpool on July 20th. This was followed by some newspaper citations that showed Tilly playing in cricket matches in Philadelphia in both early and mid-May which would have made it physically impossible for Tilly to have been in Scotland on May 11th, the date I stated for the dinner at the “Scores” Hotel at which the Road hole sketch was to have been signed by Old Tom, MacKenzie, David Scott-Taylor and Tilly.
David did a very good job of research on this. He deserves the full credit for this find and I thank him for it. He chose to present it privately because he said the he was concerned for the hit I would take to my reputation and I believe that. In fact I’m sure that it will quite surprise most to hear that he & I actually spoke on the phone about the issues raised and did so pleasantly and civilly.
In my essay I credit the details surrounding the supposed May 1901 visit to the journals of Dr. David Scott-Taylor. This is where sloppiness on my part came in. I never actually saw the journal pages at the time I looked into the veracity of the sketches after I had been made aware of them by my friend, Ian Scott-Taylor. So how could I make the claim that the information I wrote about was found in them?
It is odd to come forward and admit to a mistake of this type and ask that some trust be given in what I am about to say, but still, that is what I’m doing. If anyone chooses not to give that trust I will understand.
I have been involved with a series of ongoing research projects for the Scott-Taylor family separate from the Tillinghast drawings. I am currently not at liberty to reveal what they involve and will not do so. They involve information found throughout many different volumes of the journals of Dr. Scott-Taylor and in each case I actually did see photographs of the relevant pages from them. They were exactly correct in backing up what the family had told me about the things they had me researching.
So why then didn’t I go through the process of procuring photographic copies of the journal pages for the Tillinghast sketches? My favorite author once wrote, “Logistics is the assassin of ideas.” That is what occurred here, that and hubris.
The logistics involved in getting the photographs of the journal pages for the other research was a long and laborious process due to a private family situation which I will not speak of here. This was greatly compounded by their being in the custody of the family’s solicitor’s in Scotland. Adding to this, it occurred at a time when I was also involved in far too many other research projects and I was flat out exhausted by the time I got to the Tillinghast sketches.
The hubris of not having the “fresh eyes” that I so pride myself in having comes in my belief that the information provided to me about how and when Dr. David Scott-Taylor received the Road hole sketch was true and accurate and that because on every other occasion when I needed to verify something similar via the journals that they were correct in every single detail.
That is why I accepted what had been told me by the family as being the truth because I knew they believed it and had gotten to the point where I had no reason whatsoever to doubt it. That was my egregious mistake.
Rather than comparing the mistakes with the new information that I will be shortly presenting and reference further on, I’m simply going to outline what the journals state happened and when. This information comes directly from transcripts of the journal pages referred to and was done by myself. The irony in all of this is that a dinner did take place at the Scores Hotel on May 11, 1901, at which time the Road hole sketch was signed by Old Tom Morris, Alister MacKenzie and Dr. David Scott-Taylor. The 4th person at the dinner was Dr. Scott-Taylor’s brother. Tillinghast was nowhere in sight.
Although there is a great deal more information especially about the relationships between Tilly, MacKenzie and Old Tom, I will leave those details for you to see when the details are properly and fully posted.
Here then is the chronology of events as told directly in the pages of the journal of Dr. David Scott-Taylor:
May, 4, 2011:
“Mum gave me my mail at breakfast, got a letter from the United States. Tilly sent with a letter more like a book chapter about golf and cricket, also with 4 hole drawings in it. He promised them at Christmas, guess he forgot.
“The road hole St Andrews, 4th Machrihanish, 11th Prestwick and Callender golf club, I guess Old Tom made an impression on Tilly the last visit here. I’ll put these with the other two he gave me when I met him, a nice set they’ll make too. All signed by Tilly 1901. By the looks of things Tilly will be here on July 1st so lots to catch up on and he wants to see a first class match whilst he’s here.
“Must remember to ask Mac next week about the next Roses match at Headingly or Old Trafford and if there is one, can we get Tilly there.”
So Tilly mailed the sketch of the Road hole to him and he received it on May 4, 1901. Two things to note: First that he was planning on asking “Mac” to make arrangements for Tilly to attend a cricket match. A later page details this as actually happening. Second, that it states that it was signed by Tilly “1901.” On the sketch you will see that the word “May” has been added. It is believed that Dr. Scott-Taylor himself wrote that word in possibly to provide a more exact date for when he received it.
May 11, 2001:
“Well after we finished we down to Old Toms shop in The links Close, you can’t miss it, it has a street lamp outside it, that just happens to light the shop sign, a standing joke with Old Tom who knew the town engineer.
“I had A.W.Tillinghast’s sketch of the road hole with me and asked Old Tom what he thought and would he sign it?
“The gruff old bugger looked at me and then the sketch “Mmmm” he said, “does it really look like that to an American now?”
“He looked at me again and chuckled” I sign it wee David for a price of a dinner,” Done’ said I.’
“When I told Old Tom that Alister MacKenzie would be there, he gleamed with a mischievous look I have not seen before or since. I also offered Andra [Andra Kirkaldy who is also mentioned by name as being there in the shop] to join us but he had a previous engagement at the Royal Hotel. Tom explained “drinking buddies.”
Further down:
“At Dinner Old Tom and Mac where deep in to golf course design and what each would do with ‘Hell’ bunker on the old course, I took this opportunity of pushing Tilly’s sketch up the table to the jousting heroes.
“Mac and Old Tom dissected then the Road hole with its good and bad points, the green shape, the Road bunker, my brother was so bored he left for bed, excused himself and left.
“The Table of three where left to our own devices and conversation.
“At the end of the night we all laughed loudly, it was a good night.
“I asked Old Tom to sign the drawing as agreed and to my surprise Mac insisted to add his signature to the drawing.
“What a collection for me, and one for the scrapbook, with a grand after dinner story for the future.”
So here we see that the story behind Dr. Scott-Taylor having taken the sketch into Old Tom’s shop, asking him to sign it and agreeing to do so for the price of the dinner is correct and that there actually was a dinner on May 11, 1901, at the “Scores” Hotel at which the sketch was signed by Old Tom and Alister MacKenzie.
May 28, 1901:
“Got a parcel from Tilly yesterday with the medical journal in it I asked him to get. Will read it in the train on way down.
“I also got a note from him thanking me for my hospitality in St Andrews, typical of him. He’s a good friend.”
So here we see the irony of the thank-you note. It was written by Tilly on May 12th and because it was in the family documents it became assumed that the reference to the “hospitality in St. Andrews” was referring to the dinner from the night before on May 11th. That is also how the family mixed in Tilly to the dinner by the mistake of not having reviewed the journal pages themselves for a number of years. By that I’m not even beginning to imply that this is their mistake, rather it is stated so that an understanding of how the mistake occurred may be understood by all.
In addition, when you get to read the actual journal page I’m quite certain that all will be intrigued by the reference to what was contained in the medical journal that Tilly sent him.
July 20, 1901:
“An old friend arrives today with his wife whom I have not met, so this will be a first.
“The telegram said the ship was to arrive today in Liverpool at the Cunard docks. Tilly and his wife are traveling first class on the Campania, very posh.
“Arrived in Liverpool around 3pm when I got out of the Station I bought a Daily Post afternoon edition for a read and to see if the Campania had arrived. After finding a café on the High St for tea and bun, I walked over to the hotel. As elegant as ever ‘The Midland’ all the attendants rushing around in white coats very posh indeed. I enquired at the desk if Mr. & Mrs. Tillinghast from America had arrived.
“The desk clerk informed me they had and he would inform them I was waiting.
“I felt I was in Parliament.
“I sat in the foyer waiting for them reading the days news of which there wasn’t much apart from the House of Lord sitting on the Taff Valley case and Morocco signing a deal with France. Tilly walked up with this elegant lady. After our greeting of old friends Tilly introduced his wife Lillian, she was timid and to me a little shy of Tilly. Mmm got me wondering that did.
“By the sound of things they had a good passage and where glad to be back on dry land.
“I thanked Tilly for his drawings and told him about the Old Tom dinner, he laughed, and remarked, he would have loved to have been there to join in the discussion. He remarked he was looking forward to seeing Old Tom and chatting. I‘d like to be a fly on the wall for that I think, so would Mac. Now there’s a dinner table.
“He also asked if I got the Journal on Heart surgery. I said I did and thanked him for it along with the note. I also informed him of Mac’s (Alister MacKenzie) invitation to Old Trafford on the 25th to see Lancashire and Gloucestershire play cricket and to Leeds to visit Mac before they traveled north to Scotland.
Further down:
“Tilly was excited in both, though I think Lillian was not as pleased. I think this trip is going to be hard for her, Tilly is quite enamored with the golf course visiting. He produced this box thing, a camera he said looked more like a box for holding tea in to me, well there you go.”
It ends with this observation:
“I left Tilly sitting in the Lounge ordering another brandy and soda. I just managed to catch the Mail train from Lime Street to Crewe. I got home at about 1.30 am exhausted from the evenings events. It was wonderful to see Tillinghast again and meet Lillian, with much pondering on the train home, she has her hands full and the golf world has a genius or mad man knocking at the door, only time will tell.”
So here we see that the date Tilly arrived in Liverpool matches exactly with the date in the Journal and that both the dinner with Old Tom & MacKenzie and the receiving of his thank-you letter was discussed.
With Ran’s permission I am preparing detailed corrections to the essay that will be inserted and replace the mistaken passages mentioned above. These will include photographs of the actual journal pages so that all will have an opportunity to judge their veracity for themselves and to compare the quotations I cited from them above for accuracy. I will refrain from answering any questions until that is put up as my answers will only reflect the information found there. I would suggest that questions hold until it is put up.
I will, though, answer one of the questions already raised right now. I’m doing so because the answer has been sitting in the wonderful Ed Oden thread “A Compilation of Routing Maps, Plans and Architectural Drawings.” I received the following from Mike Cirba who found it, but first the questions/comments that it answers:
Niall Carlton commented in post #21:
Secondly, the Road Hole sketch defines the fairway. Off the top of my head I'm not sure I've seen this before on sketches of this type. Could be wrong but I thought there was lack of definition back then due to sheep and other grazing animals being unable to graze in a straight line
David asked this in post #22:
If anyone has any examples of Circa 1900 sketches that include specific fairway lines and/or detailed drawings of the shapes of the tees, I'd love to see them.
I believe this is a proper answer. It is found on page 14 of the thread, comment #347. Cristian’s text accompanying it says, “This is a picture of the 1898 routing of RSG (Sandwich), which is visible on the wall of the men's locker room. It is a beautiful copy of a drawing which my photo does not do justice (especially holes 13 and 14).” Note the fairway lines:
Once again my apologies for making these mistakes. They were made solely by me and I own them. Any criticism for making them is deserved and accepted.