Again, Mike, you seem to be ignoring CBM's own words. According to CBM's account, there was a gap between the time the developer agreed to sell CBM the property, and when CBM obtained an option.
1. "The company agreed to sell us 205 acres, and we were permitted to locate it as to best serve our purpose . . .
2. "Again, we studied the contours earnestly; selecting those that would fit in naturally with the various classical holes I had in mind, after which we staked out the land we wanted . . . ."
3. "We obtained an option on the land in November, 1906 . . ."
As for rest of the information in the mid-October Articles, I agree with Sven. There is too much accurate and detailed information for you to dismiss the articles as you do.
David,
Let's assume for a moment that this article is factually correct and your interpretation of it is spot on and and that prior to any agreement with the Real Estate Company Macdonald had the land of Sebonac Neck surveyed, a contour map created, blueprints prepared, and then mailed abroad to the folks described in the articles.
How does that square with CBM's description of what happened prior to the Agreement in Scotland's Gift?
Having the stage all set and definitely knowing what I wanted
to accomplish, with maps, sketches, and descriptions of all the more
famous holes in Great Britain, and having the $60,000-which
later was increased to $70,000-subscribed, I continued my search
to find the property on which it was possible to build the classic
golf course.
Cape Cod was very alluring. but it was too remote to attract
enough men to join the club to bring in sufficient income to preserve
it.
The land between Amagansett and Montauk was ideal, and it
would have been easy to purchase for a reasonable sum, but then,
there was no soil on which grass would grow. It would be necessary
to top dress at least sixty acres of land. To do that with six
inches of top soil would cost over $5,000 an acre. This was prohibitive.Note: he says he is discussing his options after returning from abroad with his sketches, etc. in mid-June 1906.
He continues...
Shinnecock Hills also was very attractive. but I preferred not
getting too close to the Shinnecock Hills Golf Course. The Shinnecock
Hills property, some 2,000 acres, had been owned by a
London syndicate and was sold at about $50 an acre to a Brooklyn
company a few weeks before I determined that we should build
a course there if we could secure the land. I offered the Shinnecock
Hills and Peconic Bay Realty Company $200 per acre for some
120 acres near the canal connecting Shinnecock Bay with the Great
Peconic Bay but the owners refused it.Again, I'd note that either the initial sales offer for the land near the Canal happened after his return from abroad in mid-June 1906 or this is not a strict chronology, or possibly both.
Continuing...
However, there happened to be some 450 acres of land on Sebonac
Neck, having a mile frontage on Peconic Day and lying
between Cold Spring Harbor and Bull's Head Bay. This property
was little known and had never been surveyed. Everyone
thought it more or less worthless. It abounded in bogs and swamps
and was covered with an entanglement of bayberry, huckleberry,
blackberry, and other bushes and was infested by insects. The only
way one could get over the ground was on ponies. So Jim Whigham
and myself spent two or three days riding over it, studying the
contours of the ground. Finally we determined it was what we
wanted, providing we could get it reasonably. It adjoined the Shinnecock
Hills Golf Course. The company agreed to sell us 205
acres, and we were permitted to locate it as best to serve our purpose.My plain reading of what Macdonald wrote here prior to agreement is that he and Whigham rode over the land two or three times studying the contours of the ground, determined it was what they wanted provided they could get it reasonably and the company agreed and let them locate it as best to suit their purpose.
No mention of the creation of contour maps, ongoing overseas consultations, or much else that's in that article.
Now, your point that a verbal agreement by definition proceeds a written one securing the property is self-defining. Of course one has to agree in concept before drafting a paper contract but this discussion is about what took place before the agreement, and when the agreement took place. We know by December 3rd from a letter to Frick that CBM had an agreement. We know by reports from the Lesley Cup on November 1st, 1906 that he was still looking at other sites and threatening to go elsewhere if he couldn't get a good price. We know he signed papers on December 14, 1906.
If all of that extensive, time-consuming activity of creating contour maps suitable for golf course architecture, down to 2 or 3 foot levels included in the article took place prior to the agreement don't you find it curious that there is no mention of that in "Scotland's Gift"?
As for your supposed timeline defined as questions 1, 2, 3 above, I don't think CBM differentiated between 1 & 3 and in fact there is additional information between 2 and 3 discussing how the property was more or less remote as well as which holes they found first. Put simply, by 1928 I don't think it mattered to him whether the intervening time between gaining agreement sometime after November 1st, 1906 and signing the papers on December 14th were anything worthy of note except to mention the general timeframe of events. Do you? Your question is a false choice.
I may as well turn to the next page of the book and ask you which came first, again going in the order the events are mentioned in the summary of events on the creation of NGLA that you're interpreting as some strict chronology;
1) "We abandoned the site near the old Shinnecock Inn and determined to build it (clubhouse) on the high ground overlooking Peconic Bay..."
2) "I first placed the golf holes which were almost unanimously considered the finest of their character in Great Britain."
3) "We found a setting for the Alps hole which the Whighams...considered to be superior to the original type. Strange as it may seem, we had but to look back and find a perfect Redan which was absolutely natural."
Again, your interpretation that there was some lengthy period of time between agreement and securing the property in which all of this additional design activity took place on the land doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
Again, the summary of events around the creation of NGLA in the book is not a strict chronology.
When CBM mentioned, post-agreement,
"Again we studied the contours earnestly; selecting those that would fit in naturally with the various classical holes I had in mind, after which we staked out the land we wanted.", it sounds exactly as he described in all the newspaper accounts concerning what would happen (and actually did happen) over the next five months once he signed the papers in December 1906.