Whitten sticking to his guns

[TEPaul]

Judge Jacobus:

And, whereas, if a panel of review judges finds out that you are a member of the Tillinghast Society or that you happen to be in their pocket, then therefore, you will be given the opportunity of recusing yourself from giving any more "conclusive" opinions on this situation or else being unceremoniously removed from the Bench!!

Let that be amended to read, if it's found you're in their pocket you will be remanded to Riker's Island to play golf on a course of 600 inches within your cell for the remainder of your days--with cell visitations daily from all those sexual perverts you've sent up the river during your judicial career!

Neither Bethpage, Tillinghast, Burbeck, Whitten or Golf Digest needs to be in your court of law or any other court for that matter!

[BCrosby]

Another log for the fire:

  "The original design of the Black has become debatable. The legendary A. W. Tillinghast had been considered the architect of the Black Course, which opened in 1936.  But according to Joe Burbeck, the son of the original Bethpage superintendent, Joseph Burbeck, his father designed the Black Course while Tillinghast was a consultant.

  Rees Jones disagrees. He conceded that Burbeck might have supervised the Black’s construction, but he believes Tillinghast designed the routing of the Black Course’s 18 holes.

  “I don’t believe Burbeck could’ve done this routing,” Jones said. “Tillinghast’s influence is in the routing of the holes and also the Pine Valley emphasis with No. 4’s cross bunkers and No. 5’s carry bunker. Also the natural green sites at No. 2, No. 5, No. 14, No. 15 and No. 18.  To use those green sites, you had to have Tillinghast’s experience.” "

New York Times - 6/10/02, p. E7.

No one is going to find a smoking gun that resolves this issue.  It's unlikely that there is a document buried in some closet that will settle the design attribution.

At some point you have to trust your eyes.  And the better educated the eyes, the more credence we should give to what they are seeing.

No one has better educated eyes than Rees Jones, especially when it comes to Tillie and Bethpage.

I'm with Rees on this one.

Bob

[Rick Shefchik]

There may be no smoking gun, but as I recall Ron Whitten claims there is evidence of one. He said the building of the Black Course had already begun when Tillie was signed on as a consultant.

The entire case teeters on that claim. I really wish Ron Whitten would explain why he believes it to be true. This matter would be largely put to rest if he did.