Joe Bausch,
Thanks for posting another terrific article. Out of curiousity, have you posted all of the found articles mentioning CBM's and/or Barker's role in the creation of Merion East? Thanks again.
Hi David,
Good to hear from you. Hope all is well with you and your's.
I can answer your question.
Joe has done the lion's share of the research by a long shot, but one afternoon when we were in the free library of Philadelphia I came across the following article, which I only have a copy of, and not a digital copy or photo.
It's the only mention I've seen of H.H. Barker post June/July 1910, but since there was no confirming evidence in any other account, including the club minutes, we didn't make much of it, or at least I didn't. And the fact that you still seem convinced the Macdonald did the work, as evidenced by your latest posts, probably means that you won't put much stock in it either.
However, for what it's worth, here's a report from the Philadelphia Press, Thursday, November 24th, 1910. No byline is included, unfortunately. Perhaps Joe knows who the primary golf writer was with the publication, but there are some other mistakes in this account so it may have been just a staff writer.
I think you'll likely agree that the writer was not a golf writer, and he seems more interested in the railroad part of the deal and displays very little in the way of golf knowledge. In fact, his comments seem much like boilerplate from some of the language in the June/July timeframe of that year.
MERION CLUB BUYS
FINE GOLF LINKS
Pays $85,000 for 117 Acres Near
the Present Location at
Lakewood
EXPERT TO LAY OUT COURSE
Lakewood, N.J. Nov 22 - As one result
of the recent deal involving $85,000 the
Merion Cricket Club, of Philadelphia, is in
the comparatively near future to have a new
golf links, which will be the equal to any course
in this country. A syndicate, including among
others, W. W. Atterbury, a vice-president of the
Pennsylvania Railroad: Horatio Gates Lloyd, of Drexel
and Company, Philadelphia, A. F. Huston, Rodney Griscom,
and Robert W. Lesley, have bouth 330 acres of land
adjoining Haverford College, 117 acres of which have
been transferred to the Merion Club for golfing purposes.
The location is about two miles from
the present course. Although the average price
paid for the land was $1800 an acre, the 117 acres was sold to the
Cricket club for $725 an acre, or less than half what they cost. However,
the Land Improvement Company, which is the name of the syndicate that
succeeded another organization, expects to more than recoup itself by the
enhanced value which the linnks will give the adjoining property.
It is an $85,000 transaction for the Merion Club.
Will Be Famous Course
The club's present course occupies
72 acres owned by the Pennsylvania
Railroad for which a nominal rent of approximately $3000 a year
has been paid, also 30 acres owned by Clement A. Griscom, who has always
given the use free. However, as the land owned by the railroad company is
likely to be lost any day, it was decided to buy a new course outright, which
will eventually be made to compare favorably with Myopia, Garden City, and other
famous links. Most of the property was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The Philadelphia and Western Railroad, a third rail fast trolley, is to have a
station practically at each end of the course, affording exceptional transportation.
Herbert M. Barker, former Irish amateur champion, and now professional at
Garden City has been secured to lay out the new course, and says it can scarcely be beaten in this country. Herbert J. Whigam and Charles B. Macdonald
both of New York, and national amateur champions in the early days of the sport,
have also gone over the property carefully and agree with Barker.
HenryE:
I agree with your common sense reading and frankly find the alternate interpretations to be untenable, at best.
Here is what Findlay wrote:
I advised him, preparatory to his trip to Scotland, to watch carefully the seventeenth, or Alps hole, at Prestwick, which he really imagined existed on his new course. He is now convinced that it will take a lot of making to equal that famous old spot. But many of the others, as laid out by Charles B. McDonald, are really great.
From this we know that, according to Findlay:
- Wilson mistakenly thought ("imagined") he had built a good "Alps" hole at Merion.
- Findlay disagreed, and told Wilson to take a closer look at the real thing.
- After viewing Prestwick, Wilson agreed that Merion's Alps hole needed a lot of work.
- While Findlay did not like the early version of Merion's Alps Hole, he thought that "many of the others, as laid out by Charles B. McDonald, are really great."
The article also confirms that there was no earlier study trip abroad.
David,
You're certainly correct that this article confirms no prior trip abroad by Hugh Wilson. I'm glad that matter has been laid to rest and I think that was a very valuable find on your part.
I think the rest of your interpretation of the Findlay article is pretty strained, as you have to add "imagined" words that Findlay or Wilson never used to make each of your points; little action verbs like "built" , or subjective adjectives like "good" that you've just kind of snuck in there like they were parts of the original text just tend to change the whole meaning of the article, don't you think?
Or is that your intent??
Very nice try, though! Especially impressive after all of this time...nice to see you still have the old touch!
In any case, we've been down this road before and I've seen the MCC Minutes and you haven't had that privilege, so once again, as I've said on another thread, I think your paper did have some really good value in that it sent a few of us into digging up a whole lot of information on Hugh Wilson and early Philadelphia golf that not only has academic research value, but that may end up having actual positive impact on the ground in the case of Cobb's Creek.
I certainly don't want to get into another lawyerly debate about the meaning of words. I'm perfectly comfortable that the truth is now known and CB Macdonald did have a advisory role in helping the Merion Committee select the best of their 5 routings on a single day onsite in April 1911, about a month after the committee had visited him at NGLA for an overnight stay.
As Findlay points out, and the minutes confirm, Macdonald also recommended which courses Hugh Wilson should visit abroad to view his "ideal holes" in person. That lore turns out to have been quite accurate.
It also turns out that Alan Wilson meant exactly what he said when he used the plural, when he said that CB Macdonald "advised as to
our plan
s."
Apparently, this was nothing new, much less novel. A full seven years prior, the 1905 New York Sun article I posted above talks about Macdonald doing "friendly advisor" work all over the important east coast clubs in the early days of golf. I think that's great, personally, and I'm sure he was very helpful and a real advocate for good and sound golf design.
However, are we to then give Macdonald design credit for every east coast club where he might have spent a day or two with the inhouse committees?
It also turns out that the local Philadelphian "inside golf" guys like Tillingast and Findlay, who were there and witnessed the process, were dead-on when they credited Wilson and Committee with the design and construction at Merion. Given your interpretation of Findlay's article that you've just expressed, don't you find it very odd that Macdonald isn't even mentioned in Findlay's opening day review of the course?
As far as those minutes, I heard earlier this week that the Flynn book that Wayne Morrison has been working on is now going to press, so I'm hopeful you'll get a copy and we can finally put this matter to rest. My understanding is that it will include verbatim accounts of those MCC minutes, which make very clear that no routing was approved (despite the many iterations of "plans" the committee devised) til late April, 1911, with Robert Lesley reporting for Hugh Wilson and Committee to the Board. They will also make clear that Macdonald recommended which of the Committee's plans to use, and that's the plan that went to the board for final approval. Somewhat magnamoniously, Macdonald says that if they use that particular plan, they will have the finest 7 finishing holes in the country. They will also make clear that both the 3 acres that Macdonald recommended they buy back in July 1910, as well as the land along Golf House Road that was swapped in the Francis Land Swap Deal were both purchased after that approval date in late April 1911, prior to construction. Once you see them, the timelines of everything should become much clearer.
As it turns out, partially due to the work you've put forward and the corresponding research in reaction to it, Macdonald's role as a superb advisor to the Merion Committee was confirmed and probably even accentuated, but what we now also know in much greater detail than ever before is that Hugh Wilson kicked some serious ass, and fully deserves to be known as he always has been as the architect of Merion.