In1914, C.B. Macdonald asked Bernard Darwin to facilitate the famous competition at Country Life magazine.
We are familiar with the winning entry by Alister Mackenzie which has been published in numerous forums. The second prize entry (which was submitted by Tom Simpson IIRC) has also been around a bit, and Macdonald also placed it in Scotland's Gift.
So whatever happened to the packages from all the OTHER entrants, and who were those entrants? I am thinking this question must have been vigorously attacked at some point in the last 100 years. Maybe the subject has been exhausted even by those on this forum and I am simply not well read. What do you all know about it? Surely a guy like George Bahto must have tried to uncover this data.
Here are the items I'd like to see addressed, and if any collection of guys on the planet can do it, GCA can.
** There were 81 original entries. According to CBM, 16 were sent to him for consideration. Were the originals retained by Country Life, and if so what would have happened to those archives?
** Does anyone have any images of the original advertisement for the competition?
** If the drawings still exist, are they accompanied by other correspondence from the entrants? That information might be as enlightening as the drawings.
** I would really like to see the BAD entries alongside the good. That would give an interesting picture of how the wider group of people thought about golf architecture in 1914.
** If no one has really looked for these things in earnest, how would one set about doing so 100 years later? Surely the various historians here can advise me, if they haven't already done so them.
** Conversely, can anyone confirm that the entrants' packages were destroyed or were returned?
It could be that I am just a rube and all the answers are sitting right up at the USGA Golf House ready for my inspection. Or, I'm a real idiot and there's an "In My Opinion" piece that I've flat out missed. If so, somebody please rescue me and save me from further embarrassment.
But I don't remember ever seeing the other entries anyplace at all. If they could be collected, it might be as interesting as the "course routing maps" thread.