0n March 7, 1906 in a circular letter to Walter Travis and other interested parties, Charles Blair Macdonald wrote from abroad;
”It is impossible to settle the distances and nature of the eighteen holes until the opinions of the best players have been collected and the whole matter thoroughly ventilated in the press of both countries. I intend to devote two months to the task of procuring and examining all the data on this side of the Atlantic, and shall be able when I return in June to lay before you plans and topographical maps of all the best holes in the country so that we shall have a number to choose from and so be able to scheme for a national course…”In that same letter he notes that
”Several sites have been considered, and the choice now lies at three locations at varying distance from New York.”Upon his return in mid-June 1906 (thanks for providing the dates of his trip yesterday, David) an article stated,
“Charles B. Macdonald, who has been the rounds of the Scotch and English links in search of model holes for the proposed ideal American links, is back with a portfolio filled with sketches and diagrams, while his head is teeming with ideas for the course that he has assimilated. The best holes are indexed in his mind, but the three or four to be resembled exactly have not been picked out, nor will they be until the ground is located for the new American course.”The article goes on to quote Macdonald,
”Prestwick and St. Andrews abound in lovely holes, while Sandwich was prolific in ideas. I have draughtsmen now making exact diagrams of certain holes at Prestwick and St. Andrews. I have formulated plans for more than eighteen holes, the last choice to be dependent on the ground selected, and the inspiration for the plans has been supplied in many instances by links not in the championship group.”On October 15, 1906 the following article appeared in the Boston Globe.
I think it’s important to examine the article critically. First, the very premise that Macdonald purchased land in October 1906, much less 250 acres is flat out wrong. His agreement to secure property wasn’t until mid December 1906 and the actual purchase came in June 1907.
Next, the plot of ground described by the article is the entire area of Sebonac Neck! It does not describe some particular area selected by Macdonald but the entire peninsula.
Most importantly, it does mention Macdonald’s collaboration requiring
“the opinions of expert players both here and on the other side” which are as of yet to be sifted and analyzed. It states that
“Maps showing all the undulations and grades in feet have been executed…” and mailed by Macdonald to various luminaries.
To believe that Macdonald is referring to a detailed contour map of the Sebonac Neck property requires belief that Macdonald had someone, likely Seth Raynor, create that contour map prior to the supposed “purchase”. Yet there is no evidence of that.
In “Scotland’s Gift” Macdonald wrote the following about Raynor’s role.
“Employing him to survey our Sebonac
Neck property, I was so much impressed with his dependability
and seriousness I had him make a contour map and later gave him
my surveyor's maps which I had brought from Scotland and England,
telling him that I wanted those holes laid out faithfully to
those maps. For three to four years he worked by my side.”Now, it is certainly possible that after Macdonald’s return in mid-June 1906 that he rode around the Sebonac Neck property with Whigham a few times, then paid Raynor to first survey the Sebonac Neck property and then was so impressed he paid him make a contour map, all on land he had no agreement or title to, and then sent those to experts here and abroad all in the next few months leading to an agreement to purchase land by mid-October 1906 but other than this flawed article, there is no real evidence of that happening. It certainly wasn’t reported by any of the New York City newspapers.
Years later, in CBM's 1912 Letter to the Founders, he includes this portion;
"We have also been helped by some of
the most eminent men in the game of golf
abroad, who have taken a most friendly
interest in the undertaking, and I have to
thank among these Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson,
Mr. John L. Low, Mr. 'Harold
H. Hilton, Mr. J. Sutherland, Mr. W. T.
Linskill, the Messrs. Walter and Charles
Whigham, Mr. Patrick Murray, Mr. Alexander
MacFee, and the late Mr. C. H
S. Everard, for the maps, photographs,
and suggestions which they have given us.""
No mention of them evaluating the Sebonac Neck property, or looking at topographical maps of Sebonac Neck CBM sent to them prior to his purchase. I think the writer, who seems confused on a number of points as seen below (i.e. size and location of property, purchase vs offer, etc.) also misunderstood that the maps in question were likely the draughsman’s reproductions of famous holes abroad that were intended to be copied in whole and part on the new land in question as part of that sifting and analysis.You’ll notice that he talks about the ongoing correspondence between CBM and expert opinions here and abroad but then seems to interpret those drawings as being of the new property. I don’t believe they were.
In fact, the whole premise that Macdonald had reached agreement with the Real Estate Company by mid-October 1906 seems wholly incorrect.
In late October, 1906 the Lesley Cup (or “Inter-City”) matches were held at Macdonald’s home club, Garden City. On November 1st, 1906, the New York Sun in reporting on those matches included this snippet;
It’s clear here that Macdonald is still in negotiations with the Real Estate Company, and is using the old ploy of suggesting that he’s looking at other sites as a way to bargain price. There is little doubt at this time that Macdonald had already located, rode, and determined that the Sebonac Neck site was what he wanted but was still clearly in negotiations. In fact, it wasn’t until later that month that agreement was reached and the papers were signed on the Friday afternoon of December 14th and reported extensively in the New York City newspapers that weekend, an important landmark still missing from David’s timeline.
I think a far more likely scenario is that after being rebuffed in his attempt to purchase land near the Shinnecock Canal, Macdonald focused on alternatives, or was suggested by the Real Estate Company to consider alternatives where they weren’t planning to build housing. I think it makes sense that timeframe would have been in August/September 1906. HJ Whigham later wrote in his 1939 eulogy of Macdonald;
“I went out with Macdonald to ride over the land which is now the National, and on coming back to the Shinnecock Club for lunch we found four elderly members awaiting us with dire prophecies of what would happen if we selected a site so near their own club, one of the first three golf clubs in America and the most fashionable. Yet on that first Saturday of September in 1907 there were only four old members in their sixties or seventies in the clubhouse, and they confessed that they had to contribute a pretty penny each year to keep things going."While his 1907 date is inconsistent with the timeline, it seems odd that the whole premise is based on “what would happen IF we selected a site” so near Shinnecock. By 1907 they HAD selected a site near Shinnecock and by that time would not be riding over “land which is now the National”, but a completely cleared tract of land where the greens had already been built and was fast BECOMING the National.”
Macdonald wrote a similar account 20 some years after the fact in his 1928 book;
” I remember well when in the autumn of 1907 with little or nothing
to show but n weary waste of land with a beautiful sunset and
stretches of water and meadow I was enthusiastically declaiming
to a few friends whom I had asked for luncheon at the Shinnecock
Hills Golf Club the possibility of the future classical course, an intimate
friend of mine, Urban H. Broughton, left the table. Later he
confided to John Grier that he feared. because of his affection for
me and believing that I would be so much disappointed, he would
drop a tear.Again, by the fall of 1907 Macdonald had already cleared the Sebonac Neck property and was well on his way, having just completed building the greens. Wouldn’t his statement make more sense in September of 1906 while considering purchasing the land in question, probably buoyed by finding the sites for Alps and Redan and Eden holes, yet largely invisible to those sitting with him over lunch as they surveyed the distant site? Might Whigham later have repeated that erroneous date?
Isn't it likely that the Boston Globe writer got wind of the fact that Macdonald, Whigham, and Travis had been looking at the Sebonac Neck site in previous weeks and were enthused at the possibilities? Might Travis or someone else associated with the endeavor have provided information that was both incomplete and misinterpreted?
All of this disagreement seems to based on David trying to buoy his interpretation of “Scotland’s Gift”’s 2-page, 20+ years after the fact summary of events as a strict chronology.
As such, he seems to think that CBM mentioning “the company agreed to sell us 205 acres” and “We obtained an option on the land in November, 1906...” as separate events with some significant amount of time between them. I think that’s unlikely in real terms for the reasons outlined above. Of course, there is always some gap between agreement and paperwork but if David’s interpretation is correct, why would it take over two months from agreement to closing on the deal when the Real Estate Company agreed to give them “latitude” in determining borders and Macdonald was excited to charge ahead?
Indeed, a strict chronological interpretation of the events summarized in Macdonald’s book would have us believe that CBM located and laid out his Alps, Redan, and Eden holes some time
after the Shinneock Inn burned down in 1909? (it actually burned in 1908..comment mine) and Patrick’s new clubhouse was finally built on the high ground overlooking Peconic Bay, as seen below.
The good news here is that I think David and I pretty much agree on the rest of the timeline after December 15th, 1906.
