"I don't believe you answered the question who were the best golf architects operation in 1910 or 1911, and their best designs. Are you saying you are uncertain or are you saying there weren't any good architects in 1910 (accept for Macdonald, Leeds or Travis)."
What I'm saying is I do not believe that men like Macdonald or Crump or Wilson felt that there was any really good golf course architecture in America off the pallettes of any of the professional architects of that time (previous to 1910). If there was I don't think I know what it was and I sure don't think they did either?
I think that is precisely why they tended to do what they did----eg those unusual "amateur/sportsmen" designers like Leeds, Emmet, Fownse, Macdonald, Travis, Crump, Wilson et al who clearly produced (perhaps eventually) some of the greatest architecture in American history! Can you deny that?
I do not necessarily think that the likes of Findlay, Bendelow, Barker, Way, White, even young Ross before 1910 were untalented. I just think they had to get out of their club pro shops and other jobs and get a whole lot more organized in the complex business of creating quality architecture. They had to begin to stop treating golf architecture as part-time on-the-fly profession (18 stakes on a Sunday Afternoon/offer a simple stick routing layout/spend less than a week at a project etc) and really get into it with the time required as those so-called amateur/sportsmen were doing with THEIR projects without a professional.
Were those "amateur/sportsmen" inexperienced when they first started? Of course they were but they were all smart guys and they were learning fast OJT on the generally single projects they were concentrating on solely. Sure, they made mistakes in the beginning but they took the time to fix them and go on and on and make their courses better and better and eventually hugely respected and famous to this day. It took them a minimum of some years and in most cases decades!
I think if you don't understand these two intersecting dynamics from that time, Tom, you are just never going to really understand what was going on back then and how it evolved. In a fast phrase you won't be able to truly understand the golf architecture of that particular time (about 1900 to the mid teens). Isn't it interesting that after about the mid teens we really don't see those interesting "amateur/sportsmen"designers BEGINNING new projects that way??
They mostly all came earlier!
Was Macdonald right that before NGLA that there were only three good courses in America? I think he was and I know he felt he was. And what were they----Chicago Golf, GCGC and Myopia----created by those "amateur/sportsmen" all.