I'm not sure what Patrick's referring to because I've never called the old 10th at Merion an "Alps" hole. I only suggested that it was probably blind, based on everything I know.
As you know, Macdonald and Raynor called any number of holes "Alps" holes; sometimes, like the one at Yeaman's Hall, they weren't blind at all. I suspect at the time any hole on a new American course that featured blindness or some approach over something you couldn't see was called an "Alps". Let's face it...in those early years, the idea of having something modeled after a British or Scottish golf hole concept was all the rage, whether it made sense consistently or not.
Was the 10th meant to be modeled after an Alps? I have no idea and unless I saw some proof based on the leading knowledgeable authorities of the time, such as Hugh Wilson, or anyone directly involved in the original course building, I would never make such a claim.
Merion, unlike NGLA, was not intended to be directly imitative of great holes overseas. Yes, I'm sure Wilson learned a lot from Macdonald and from his overseas visit, but what he brought back were conceptual ideas more than anything, not outright attempts to capture the key elements of great holes in the imitative fashion that Macdonald did at NGLA. For instance, there's no "Road hole", there's no "Double Plateau", there's no "Leven", there's no "Biarritz", and the early accounts make clear that this was Wilson, not Macdonald, who designed Merion en toto. I think suggestions that Macdonald was responsible really strain credulity, because even at that early time, the course at Merion looked nothing at all like the type of geometric design that Macdonald was noted for in all of his work.
I'm sure to add some authenticity to his product, Wilson may have been pleased that some saw the 3rd, where the green sits a bit obliquely on a tabletop shelf of land as approximating the demands of the redan, and features like the front of the 16th and 17th greens owe pay homage to the Valley of Sin, and Wilson may also have thought that having a blind hole like an Alps (he must have seen many blind holes on the great courses) was the sign of a sporty, challenging course, so he built one on 10.
I think the key point here is the difference between influence and imitation. Macdonald, throughout his career, (and later Raynor & Banks) leaned heavily towards the latter. Wilson (and later Flynn) took those principles and Americanized them.
One thing that was very surprising to me looking at the Golf Illustrated pics of Merion from the Feb and Sept 1916 issues was how much the course looks similar in many respects to today's course. The approach to the 16th, the drive on 4, the green at the 9th, the tee shot on 17, the approach at 7 all looked very cool, and with the exception of some bunkering added over the years, the course looked much further along at that point than what I truly expected to see.