David,
Alright, David, I'll give you a 1% margin for the angle.
Youre triangle is still 26% shy of what they used.
And you're now looking for more land out to the middle of the road?
Give me a break, David...what part of the road might they have used for the golf course??
All,
Let's go back and look at what Richard Francis wrote, and this time let's assume David is correct and that the Land Swap was for the entire 130x190 triangle, even if it was only 90-95 yards wide.
I'm going to assume he's correct and go back and black out areas of the course they didn't own yet, over today's aerial.
I'm going back, back,...back to the land before Richard Francis and his late night bike ride.
Remember, according to David the land of the triangle didn't yet exist on any Merion plan.
Francis said they were able to lay out 13 holes pretty easily in the upright portiion of the L, or the all holes south of the clubhouse as seen here encircled in red.
Now, the quarry was not playable golf, so that's encircled in yellow.
The light green is the area where according to David, they were trying to lay out the final FIVE holes. In fact, I've drawn it TOO BIG, because you can see larges parts of 14 and the original 15th tee outside that original boundary.
Also remember that this is the longest stretch of holes at Merion on average, the fearsome final five. We also know they wanted a championship course, not one of 6000 yards as Macdonald and Whigham both recommended.
The orange line is a rough approximation of the November 1910 land plan proposed boundary. As mentioned, you can see even there that much of 14 and the old 15th tee was outside of that boundary.
Remember also that Richard Francis told us that the land they swapped was land that "WASN'T PART OF ANY GOLF PLAN" they had conceived of, based on their routings.1) How in the hell would they have ever thought they could get 5 holes up into the northern quarry part if they hadn't already been operating with at least some of that land under consideration.
2) Other land that was owned to the west of the course might have been it, but what part would you see as excessive and "not part of any golf plan"?
3) Why would they only have taken a little slice of land above the quarry, especially after M&W had already told them that they might be able to exploit that hazard to their advantage?