On November 15, 1910 Merion also informed the membership that M&W had inspected the property, etc.
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Mike Cirba, The information from Barker's visit and M&W's visit comes from ONE site committee report, dated July 1, 1910. That letter was also included with the Board's November 15, 1910 report to the members.
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David,
Thank you for your answer.
So, that Site Committee report that talked about the 300 acres and availability of 100 acres for golf talked about BOTH the Barker and Macdonald visits, probably refuting one and recommending the other??
Why did you state earlier that M&W
"probably" came to Merion between June 10th and July 1st?
Are you leaving open the possibility that it may have been earlier? I'm trying to understand why a single document delivered in November 1910 would have had wording that makes it sound as though the site had just been discovered and that 100 acres were available for golf when it's clear that at least the Site Committee had been looking at this land since July 1909?
It also seems strange that a half a year passed between the original HDC offer (with Barker) in June and the submission of a report to be considered by the Governors in November, or that no other communications took place between the Site Committee and their overseers during that timeframe. This was, after all, seemingly a very, very high priority for the club at this point. Do you understand my confusion?
This document appears to be fundamental to our understanding at this point. Is there a way to make it available online, or perhaps share with us the content in greater detail, as there are only scant passing references to it in your White Paper. Thanks.
p.s. I think this timing makes it odder that Tillinghast would write for American Golfer in Dec 1919 that Macdonald had visited and only "blessed" the land as good for golf. If he had indeed created a routing during his intial visit that led to HDC aquiring more land over the next six months as you suggest, Phil is absolutely correct...Tilly would have certainly known about that and absolutely reported it as it would have been astounding news to trumpet to the mountaintops.
I also think the timing of June 1910 for Macdonald's initial visit argues for less Macdonald involvement/credit, wouldn't you agree?
Even if he recommended that the club should try to aquire some adjacent parcels for their course, or suggested adding 20% to the purchase, or both, which Merion (under the guise of Lloyd directing the HDC) seem to have done in the next six months, the fact that he visited in June 1910 to simply recommend the site, and then didn't return again until almost a year later in April 1911 seems to indicate to me very strongly that it was during this time that the members (or
somebody) fleshed out a basic routing. We KNOW Macdonald wasn't there, and KNOW he wouldn't come back until April, and KNOW at that time there was already a "plan" in place.
To paraphrase Tom Paul, what do you think the Merion folks were doing at this time...sitting on their thumbs? Where was Hugh Wilson in 1910?
I think given what we know about Lloyd's direct involvement with both HDC and Merion, it gives new meaning to what Wilson might have meant when he talked about the "purchase' of the property, and the timing of that. It also may change our understanding of when he and the Committee visited NGLA, don't you think?
However, lest ye think that I'm giving Wilson and the Committee too much credit for the genius of the course we know today, let's not forget that the original routing that opened in 1911 was hardly the brilliant gem we know today. In fact, almost half the course (at least 7 holes) had been wholly or partially rerouted or fundamentally changed (greensite moved) within the first 12 years after opening. Whoever deserves credit here for the original design hardly got it right the first time...while there were stretches of brilliance, there were also some really pretty amateurish things like the 3 parallel street crossing in a row, so thank God that the course evolved over the next period.