Can some one refresh my memory. Did Findlay ever say Wilson designed Merion?
Jim. Good Question.
The short answer is No. I am unaware of any such article.
TEPaul not only disagrees with me, he is incredulous:
The mincing of words and definitions on these threads has gotten out of control. It looks like Moriarty in response to Cirba actually claimed when Findlay said in one of those articles that Wilson and his committee "mapped out" the course that Findlay must have meant those five men merely measured the golf course.
I guess he is referring to the Nov. 24 1910 article found on the first page of this post, because this article contains the “mapped out” language.
1. TEPaul believes that Findlay wrote this article.
2. He also apparently believes that the “mapped out” language is strong evidence that Wilson and Committee were the designers of the course.
He is mistaken on both counts.
First, Findlay was NOT the author of this article. The article was not attributed.
Second, the article appears to be a second hand recitation of earlier articles, and likely adds little to what we know about the creation of Merion East.
- The portion describing the golf course reads as if it were a crib of an earlier Findlay review, also on the first page of this thread.
- While it does contain some of the same information as the Findlay article, the derivative article is abbreviated, awkward, and none too accurate, as if the author had been sloppy or knew little about golf, or both. For just one example, while the Findlay article describes the 8th hole as "plain," the derivative article describes it as “at the end of a plain."
- While it is an entertaining read, it is difficult to figure what this derivative article adds to the discussion.
Third and most importantly, while the Findlay article praises Wilson and his Committee for
building the best course in PA,
Findlay did NOT write that Wilson and Co. "mapped out" the course. That language only appears in the derivative article.
Fourth, TEPaul is taking the unattributed article out of context. A closer look reveals that the "mapped out" language is used in the context of providing the total course distance, and is not necessarily identifying those who routed the course and created the hole concepts. Here is the passage:
”The length of the course is is 6, 245 yards, as mapped out by [the Committee,] but there is room for tee space to the extent of 2[xx] yards.”Maybe I am crazy, but it seems to me that the derivative article is describing the length of the course, and is not necessarily discussing design attribution.
With that said, the long answer to your question is also a resounding NO. Despite TEPaul's post the contrary, I am unaware of any article where Findlay wrote that Wilson designed Merion East.
Here is TEPaul's post in its entirety:
"Can some one refresh my memory. Did Findlay ever say Wilson designed Merion?"
Jim:
Just go back and read the couple of articles on the first page by Findlay and the letter and such by Baily (board member of MCC) on the first page of this thread and I think you can answer that question for yourself. If Wilson and his committee weren't out there physically digging and shoveling and shit (which clearly they never did) then what do you think everyone back then meant when they said they "laid out" or even "mapped out" Merion East?
The mincing of words and definitions on these threads has gotten out of control. It looks like Moriarty in response to Cirba actually claimed when Findlay said in one of those articles that Wilson and his committee "mapped out" the course that Findlay must have meant those five men merely measured the golf course.
Jim, if the board report states that Wilson and his committee spent a couple of months in the winter and spring of 1911 creating "numerous plans" and following their visit to NGLA they honed it down to "five different courses" and one of those course plans was approved of in April by the MCC board of Directors with a course plan attached to the report the board was considering to begin the construction of the course, do you really think ALL THAT actually meant all Wilson and his committee did was MEASURE the golf course once someone else routed, designed it and then built it for them?
Analyzing this course's architectural history and who did what even in the very beginning is definitely not rocket science to figure out what it means; and spending four pages on here analyzing the shit out of what this one single Findlay article means about "others" is definitely not even 1% of the way to go about it.