Patrick,
I've posted the July 1st Site Committee report to the Merion Board of Government in it's entirety. It is two pages and should be back about 50 or so posts. (EDIT - Patrick, both reports are included in entirety in my post #1440)
I've also posted the November 15th, 1910 Letter from the Board to the Membership in it's entirety, including the Land Plan.
These are both documents that David Moriarty has had from the beginning, and he quotes from both liberally in his essay so nothing relevant here has been withheld from David.
The reason I'm posting them now is because something finally hit me the other day and as I chased it down, it turns out that it proves that the Merion Site Committee recommended purchase of the 120 acres for the golf course to their Board of Governors BEFORE ANY POSSIBLE ROUTING BY MACDONALD AND WHIGHAM COULD HAVE EXISTED.
What occurred to me is what should have been an obvious connection I'd never made before and it was a statement by Tom Paul that the report recommending the purchase of "nearly 120 acres" took place on July 1st, 1910, or exactly TWO DAYS after Macdonald sent his one-page letter to Lloyd of the Site Committee.
Let me repeat what I wrote above to Jim Sullivan;
I went back and read much of David's essay last night and I'd suggest you do the same.
He rests his timeline case around the land purchases on the following premise;
1) Connell and HDC offered 100 acres (or whatever would be required for the golf course) and a routing by Barker in June 1910
2) Macdonald and Whigham came to visit later June 1910
3) During their visit, David contends that it was identified that two additional pieces of land would be needed, proven by the supposed change to now "requiring 120 acres" in the July 1, 1910 report of the Site Committee to the Merion Board. David speculates that the additional acreage was made up of the Dallas Estate and the Railroad Land, although that would create the requirement for an additional 24 acres, not 20.
However, there was NEVER ANY CHANGE FROM 100 ACRES TO 120 ACRES IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! BOTH numbers come from THE EXACT SAME JULY 1, 1910 REPORT!!! (copied above)
We now firmly believe that when Barker and Macdonald, and Whigham visited they was already looking at 117 acres...the exact acreage of the northeastern and southern sections of the Johnson Farm, land ALREADY OWNED by HDC and thus able to be legally part of the proposed transaction and recommendation.
We also know that Macdonald recommended additional purchase of the 3 acres of Railroad Land which would have created the "120 acres" referenced in the July 1 letter.
However, there is no way that Macdonald and Whigham routed a golf course between their letter of June 29th, 1910 (copied above) and the Merion Site Committee's July 1, 1910 report (also copied above) RECOMMENDING STRONGLY to the Merion Board that they move forward to aquire the "required" 120 acres, and the only land that could have meant at that time was the 117 acres of those sections of the Johnson Farm, as well as the 3 acres of railroad land.
Also, Patrick, this nonsensical contention that there was other, regular, ongoing communications between Macdonald and Merion between July 1910 and Novmber 1910 is simply not supported by a single fact or shred of evidence. There is NONE, zip, nada, zero record of any communications.
In July of 1910, after four solid years of working on it, Macdonald was just finally getting his own NGLA open and had his own plate quite full. From "The Evangelist of Golf";
On July 2, 1910, 14 months before the official opening, the course was finally ready for a test run. An informal Invitational Tournament was held for a select group of founders and friends invited to participate.
A qualifying round was played on the first day, followed by two days of match play. The course was still rough with temporary tee boxes, and a few bare spots on fairways on fairways and greens. Macdonald was still altering and refining the course. In fact, a new 9th (current 18th) green was already under construction before the course ever opened.
Besides the 9th (current 18th) soon expanded by 60 yards, Macdonald changed his mind and stretched the Sahara hole (current 2nd) from a short 215 to 261 yards uphill over an extended waste area.
It was noted the tournament served the purpose of revealing any design shortcoming that needed correcting. All holes received high praise, except the Road hole, "which did not play as anticipated". Apparently the corner hazard in the driving area was not what it would become later.
So Patrick, as much as you and David and others wish to dream on that Charles Macdonald laid out the course at Merion, the true historical facts and timelines speak loudly otherwise.
Macdonald did offer great help and advice to the Merion Committe, just as it was always written and acknowledged.
He clearly 1) gave them a somewhat guarded, cautionary recommendation approving of the site with the caveat that they get some soil samples and other study of inland agronomics, 2) hosted the Merion Committee for a night and a day at NGLA where he showed them all of his hole drawings from abroad, how he had applied them at NGLA, and then took them on a tour of the course, and finally, 3) he came down and helped the committee pick the best of their five plans for the proposed golf course.
That's it...and it was extremely helpful.
Now we know.