Joe:
I guess I missed that article in the exchange. Is that the opinion of Verdant Greene?
If so, I guess that narrows down somewhat who he may've been if he had an opinion like that, particularly the "social caste" remark.
It also brings up an interesting question such as if he was a writer getting paid for writing on golf for the Philly Inquirer he mustn't have been much of an amateur golfer concerned about his amateur playing status. Or maybe he wasn't paid by the Inquirer, maybe he just wrote for the fun of it which would probably mean he was pretty close to the likes of Crump, Wilson et al.
But that old ultra conservative attitude about amateurism and professionalism in golf that was particularly strong at that time was basically borne out of the old concept of amateur "sportsmen" who played the game simply for the love of it and remuneration from it of any kind and in any way was considered to be completely counter to that and basically unthinkable.
That kind of thing may've been some kind of an offshoot of the old 19th century English aristocractic idea that it was even unfashionable to work at all.
Some of those back then who felt particularly strong about that was Macdonald, perhaps not so much with others but certainly for himself.
Some of the Americans at that time seemed much more conservative than the other side.
Around 1920 the USGA Amateur Status committee passed an "exception" for all professional golf architects allowing them all to maintain their amateur playing status.
But before that most all those so-called "amateur" architects like Hugh Wilson, George Thomas, C.B. Macdonald, W.C. Fownes, perhaps Max Behr et al never took a nickel for anything they ever did in golf and architecture.
The fact that most every one of them had money may've helped!
