1. The historical record does not support your contention that NGLA "became 'influential' following its opening, or your contention that NGLA "certainly WASN’T influential while it was being built. The club's formal opening was inSeptember 1911, wasn't it?
I don't have all my source material with me, but here is a rough list of some of the indicators of NGLA's incredible impact in 1910 and before.
1905, newspapers all over the country began covering Macdonald's plan for for a national golf links modeled after the great holes overseas.
1907. NGLA built and grassed. Macdonald would continue to tinker with the course over the next 20+ years.
1908. NGLA at least partially regrassed due to turf problems.
1909. Macdonald and friends began playing NGLA.
Reports emerged praising the course, even though it was not yet formally opened. For example,
-- One major figure in American golf simply called it the finest.
-- A major mainstream magazine featured NGLA, explained many of its holes.
-- Same article proclaimed that Macdonald's NGLA marked a new era in golf.
1910. Hutchinson played NGLA and he and CBM play number of other American courses. NGLA head and shoulders above the rest.
Macdonald held an informal tournament at NGLA featuring some of the most notable figures in American golf.
GA, GI, and mainstream newspapers covered the tournament and praised the course. Travis and Behr both play.
NGLA praised in mainstream press on both sides of the Atlantic.
Reportedly, as a result of Macdonald's success many clubs are sending their pros abroad to study the great courses.
David,
I think this timeline is important, and I also think it's incorrect.
I'm not contending that NGLA wasn't hugely important and influential but I'm challenging
when it became so.
Macdonald, by weight of his prominence and personality, did in fact trumpet his plan quite early and it did get some press. However, your statement that NGLA was built and grassed completely by 1907 is very misleading, and what you called "tinkering" involved building greens, bunkers, and entire hole strategies.
And yes, Macdonald did quickly experience a complete agronomic failure that set him back at least 18 months.
You continue to state that by 1909, "Macdonald and friends began playing NGLA", and then claim that during that year, "Reports emerged", "One major figure in American golf", and "Same article proclaimed", but do not clue us in to who that was.
I have no doubt that much like Mackenzie and Jones at ANGC, or virtually any architect at any course before or since, people "played" the course prior to opening, and hit shots to test distances, hole values, etc., but does that mean that we should now retroactively move back the opening date of every course on the planet 2 years, and claim that whatever influential value each course had they already had at that earlier stage??
However, to have widespread impact and influence, that means everyone had to know what it actually was, and what the strategies of the holes were/are. If they were never there, or hadn't played it, or read about the holes, how would they know?
And yes, there was a very small cognescenti of the time who might be like the GCA of that time who were more aware of what Macdonald was doing, much like we might anticipate what a Tom Doak was building at Pacific Dunes, but I have to ask once again....WHO was playing the course in 1909??
Instead, from all reports I've seen, it wasn't until 1910 that Macdonald unveiled his course to a wider group than the original close-knit crew of himself, Travis (who got booted), Emmett, Whigham, and very few others. He did this in the form of an Invitational Tournament, which JMorgan thankfully covered with news article and picture on this forum.
After that tournament in early July 1910, we THEN see the articles by Travis, and Darwin, and other prominent writers extolling the virtues of the course and it was THEN that the impact of NGLA as well as it's influence began to become more widespread. But, it also wasn't until 14 month later when the course finally opened to full membership play that more than just a small handful of top golfers had the opportunity to play there. In that vein, I'm wondering aloud rhetorically if the Merion committee actually played the course in spring of 1911, or whether they simply walked it. If I recall the wording of the meeting minutes precisely, I believe it's the latter.
Before then, it was largely an exciting rumor, and given the length of time it was taking due to agronomic issues, I'm also sure the project had it's skeptics as time went by, as well.
Why is this important?
It's important if we are going to try to use NGLA as a direct link to the building of other historic courses in/near that same timeframe, and its important if we are to truly understand the relationship of many of these early designers to each other.