http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,35535.0.html
TE/JES
If you are honestly interested in Barker, perhaps you could start by searching in your own backyard, and follow up on Green's claim about the three Philly courses. We have a pretty good idea on the first two (Springhaven and Merion). What is the third golf course?
Tom MacWood,
You use newspaper articles that support your claims and disregard others that do not. You have a disturbing pattern of ignoring information that counters your arguments and overreach the implications of other articles that you deem supports your arguments. Consider some of your reactions to newspaper articles attributing the design of Merion East to Wilson and his committee. You and your protoge rejected them yet you threw overwhelming support to a eulogy 30 years after the fact. You guys are moving targets when it comes to research methods.
I mentioned in the other Barker thread that I've seen a written account that Barker was involved at Atlantic City CC. I am not interested enough to research this, but Tom MacWood might start with ACCC as the suspected third course. Of course, there is no evidence that Barker had anything at all to do with Merion. For now, all we know is that Barker created a rough draft of a course on some of the land that was eventually used for Merion's East Course and not for the Club but for land developers that would later sell the property to the Club. We are starting to have some idea about Barker's work at Springhaven. It doesn't appear that it lasted very long as a different design theory and aesthetic subordinated and erased Barker's work within a decade or so.
Just how much of an original architect's work remains and how much reworking was done over time by other architects is not any easy task on any golf course. The majority of our Flynn book looks at the architectural evolution of the courses he was involved in. The Merion chapter alone is 200 pages. Shinnecock Hills, The Country Club, Indian Creek, Cascades, Lancaster, Boca Raton, Philadelphia Country and Huntingdon Valley all get extensive coverage. In redesign work, Flynn's method of utilizing a survey of the existing course, preliminary plans overlaid on that survey and subsequent design iterations combined with ground and serial aerial photographs (along with some extensive Photoshop overlays by Craig Disher) were used to figure out what existed prior to Flynn, what design process he took to come up with a final plan, how the final plan was adopted and what changes were made over time enabled us to put together comprehensive design evolution reports together. This is not only useful in recording the history of the architecture, but also helpful in restoration efforts. Flynn drew to scale (it was inked and enhanced by WS Nichols). This critical factor enabled our anlaysis process to work.
If an "expert researcher" makes certain claims about the standing or specific attributions of an architect, there should be substance to such claims. With MacWood and Moriarty, there are fewer facts and a great deal more fiction based upon their methods and biases.