"Tom -
just some random thoughts (probably well addressed here long ago, either for or against):
- one of the 'connections' that Macdonald and Wilson shared was Horace Hutchison. I wonder about his influence, first on Macdonald and then later (post-NGLA) on Wilson; and I wonder if, explicitely or implicitely, he guided Wilson a little more inland than he had Macdonald."
Peter:
Macdonald certainly had a connection with Horace Hutchinson, in that he seemed to know him quite well and respect him. Actually Macdonald seemed quite proud of the way Hutchinson reviewed his NGLA when Hutchinson was over here cruising around on some bigwig's yacht. On the other hand, I am not aware that Hugh Wilson had much connection with Hutchinson. I do think that Wilson had some connections with Harry Colt both when Wilson was over in the heathlands and then when Colt was over here before WW1.
"- could that 'odd reality' at Merion be seen as the birth of the uniquely American aesthetic of golf course architecture?"
What I meant by 'that odd reality' is simply that from around 1912 until after 1916 Merion did have a number of architectural features that were reminiscent of the "National School" architecture as well as some of those rudimentary mounds known as "alpinization" or "Mid-Surrey" mounding. Between 1916 and the early 1930s Merion removed all that kind of thing from the course and went with a style that can only be described as more natural looking. Ron Prichard, for instance, thinks the dished shaped/sand flashed Merion bunker was basically the first evidence of that kind of thing in American architecture and that it in fact became the prototypical American bunker style.
"And if so (here's just goofy speculation) could you argue that the 'game mind if man' first found its foothold and expression in this development - a foothold tied intimately to turn of the century America with its rapid move from the agrarian to the industrial?"
I wouldn't say that the "game mind of man" necessarily had everything to do with any particular kind of aesthetic with the possible exception of one that was really highly defined lookingh as to in or out or penalty or reward. But I do think one does need to consider the beginnings of what came to be known in American architecture as "modern" or "scientific" architecture, and I think Merion was certainly in that camp with some others of that time.
I think that kind of thing wasn't so much about a "look" or aesthetic necessarily as it was about how to design things to create risk/reward situations for most everyone's type of game. I think those guys were simply trying to figure out what the future of golf should be and how it could be reflected in golf architecture.
These things are never black and white and all that easily categorized, in my opinion, Peter. There were a whole lot of cross-currents going on back then. I think American golf and architecture was just looking to find its own way of doing things whether with a "look" or with various architectural "arrangements" to effect and influence everyone's game in some better and more interesting ways.
I think there was a definite transition period with both golf and architecture from the Old World but then around the middle of the teens Americans and American architects decided they didn't need to sit at the knee of non-American architects from the Old World any longer (as Tillinghast wrote) and as USGA President Robertson said: "....nothing remains in America long without being Americanized."
I'm sure most all of us realize America is pretty good at doing that and they always have been!
