If we are getting technical about what actually went on in 1910 and 1911, they (that is MCC) did not buy anything in Nov. 1910. What they had in Nov. 1910 was a basic understanding (agreement in principle with HDC) that they would buy a certain amount of land for a certain amount of money out of a larger HDC tract from the HDC eventually if they agreed to get to work doing a course.
When they had that (agreement in principle) via two letters between Nickelson of the HDC and president Evans of MCC in Nov. 1910, then MCC got their lawyer and board member, T. DeWitt Cuyler, to swing into action and create what was known as The MCC Golf Association Company. We need to take very careful note of the company part of that because before that MCC had been operating at Haverford for golf with what was known as the MCC Golf Association which was formed in 1909 by a group of golfing members including Alan Wilson and I believe Hugh and a few others. I doubt that former MCC Golf Association was a separate registered company but it may've operated through a corporate entity within MCC known as the Haverford Land Co (not the same thing as HDC).
(Do you think these MCC "captains of the universe" like Lloyd, Scattergood, Griscom, Cuylers, Thayer et al were corporation freaks and geeks with all the complex financial shit that went along with all that or what?? I guarantee you if these bigtime business honchos could borrow a nickel for 5 1/4 cents on this side of the street and lend it out on the other side of the street for 5 1/2 cents or save a dollar in taxes somehow they would do it in a heartbeat with some kind of labrynthian corporate structure no matter how rich they were! 
).
It would take Cuylers who was apparently one of the most powerful men in the American railroad industry and an expert on corporate law and corporate registration a number of weeks to get the MCC Golf Association Company set up with officers, with a certain amount of stock and registered. That would not get done until around the third week of Dec. 1910.
At that point 161 acres was transfered from HDC to a man by the name of Rothwell (probably a title and trust company employee) for $1.00. Three days later Rothwell transfered the property to Lloyd and his wife. At that point Lloyd was the president of the newly set up MCC Golf Association Co.
Lloyd would hold the land for the golf course (120 acres) until July 19, 1911 at which point he transfered it back to Rothwell who transfered it to the MCC Golf Association Company the same day, each time for $1.00. Within a year or so the MCC Golf Association Company would lease the land and course to MCC, the club.
One might wonder what-all the 161 acres was that was initially transfered through to Lloyd and his wife in Dec. 1910. It was the entire 140 acre Johnson Farm and we believe it was the 21 acre Dallas estate. When Lloyd transfered the 120 acres back through Rothwell to the MCC Golf Association Co. in July 1911 we assume he kept about 40 acres of the old Johnson Farm across Ardmore Ave from the second hole that became part of the residential development to the west that was known as HDC. We feel pretty confident that for about the last 7-8 months (from Dec, 1910 to July 1911) Lloyd and his MCC syndicate had essentially been in control of HDC too and probably through a stock underwriting/offering he engineered and just a basic preconceived real estate sales management arrangement with the former owners of HDC and probably primarily MCC members et al many of which would be residential buyers and builders on the HDC land (221 acres). We've begun to track the real estate development sell out to the west over the next 7-12 years into the 1920s and a lot of them were MCC members including interestingly enough Hugh I. Wilson on the corner of Exeter Rd overlooking the 14th hole.
But the most fascinating and impressive thing to me is obviously there were a number of preconceived reasons Lloyd took control and ownership like that in the end of Dec. 1910 and according to a letter from Cuylers to Evans on Dec. 21 1910 one of those reasons was so Lloyd could move boundary lines for the course around at will because the boundaries of what would become the course had not been definitely determined upon at that point according to Cuylers.
And we also know because it is recorded in the administrative records of MCC that within a couple of weeks or sooner (the beginning of Jan. 1911) the Wilson Committee would be formed and according to their April report to the board they would spend the next three months between January and April first laying out many different courses on the ground, then going to NGLA for two days in the second week of March, then home to hone their course layouts down to five different plans, get Macdonald/Whigam back on April 6, 1911 for a day, go over the grounds and five plans, select one to be approved by the board and that was done on April 19, 1911.
That's what the records show, those are the facts, and in the course of all this at some point in 1911, Francis who was then a member of Wilson's committee had his idea of how to finally fix #15 and #16 which he said in his story had been a problem getting in all along with the last five holes (again obviously because that triangle that shows up on the plan back on Nov. 15, 1910 was just too damned narrow to fit the 15th green and 16th tee up into). Francis certainly knew to go to Lloyd and just get his permission on the spot to redelineate that road on the plan which wouldn't even be built for a couple more years and it was done (no deed or land transfer necessary at that point) and they probably did get quarry men to blow the top wall off the quarry in two days as his story said. The thing I think is so interesting is Francis's midnight visit to Lloyd could hardly have been a surprise in the slightest to Lloyd----he was ready for it because he and Cuylers and MCC had put him in position to do something precisely like that back in the end of Dec. 1910. In other words, they all saw the possibility of something like that coming and they said so in writing back in the end of Dec. 1911 because at that point no course or precise land figuration for the course had definitely been determined upon as they said in Dec 1910.
Had MCC had "a plan", a routing and course or anything like it in place in 1910 or certainly before Nov. 15, 1910 as Moriarty's essay contends they sure wouldn't have had to do all that and go through all that, would they? And what in the world would it have been all about then that the Wilson Committee was doing all those three months in the winter of 1911 with what they reported were their "numerous different courses on the ground" and then "five different plans" that would be used to select one to be approved on April 19, 1911?
Anyway, at least one piece of MCC correspondence also indicates throughout the time from the middle of June 1910 until well into the fall they all felt it not prudent to be too obvious about what they were doing which I suppose primarily meant having their eye on the Dallas estate.
Ok, I think I'm done with the Merion threads becuase I feel pretty darn comfortable with what happened now. Mainly, I think it boils down to this:
1. Merion finds some good land for a new course and MacDonald is in town for the US Open so they invite him over in June 1910. He looks at the property says they could build a damn fine golf course, but he's too busy with his baby on Long Island to help. He suggests they get an option on the land and put a committee together and see what they can get done. He follows up by sending a letter that their course could by a nice, little 6,000 yard job and says go for it. He does recommend to them they look strongly at the Dallas Estate because they can get some real quality golf holes on the property from that acreage over there. He also recommends they get the three acres by the railroad. I think it's very possilbe, that MacDonald told them to get the hell over across Ardmore Ave as fast as you can (knowing they had a clubhouse site already set) and see how many holes you can get because it's going to be tight on the north side of the property.
2. As Tom mentions above, the boys go into action to buy 161 acres for the golf course, way more than they need. But, they give Lloyd control of the boundaries. They issue to the members a "proposal" in November 1910 of what the course property my look like, but it's not set in stone. This is evident by the course, when it came to fruition, not going all the way to College Ave and having a green (the 12th) and a par-3 (the 13th) playing over the leased railroad land. Turns out Lloyd was under instruction to get the thing done at 120 acres and he did. (Really, they needed 123 acres, but decided to lease the three by the tracks.)
3. Sometime after the proposed plan comes out and when MacDonald returned, the committee is pulling their hair out because they can't get the frickin' 15th and 16th to fit in that little area on the proposed map. Francis says to Lloyd that we need this area to be wider, but we don't need to go all the way to College Ave., so we're going to widen that space out and change the direction of the road a bit (the road ends going all the way down the western border of the McFadden property) but we'll still be inside of the 120 acres that we can use for golf. Lloyd says do what you have to do. Again, since the boundaries for the golf course haven't been set yet, there is no record of a deed (or probably even any administrative record of this).
4. By early April 1911, they fell pretty damn good about what they've got and call back MacDonald. He likes what he sees, calling the finishing stretch as good as any he's seen. By April 19th, they had board approval for going full boar with the finishing of the golf course. Golf House Road is set up and the club in July, 1911 controls 120.1 acres (or thereabouts).
I think it's appropriate to say that MacDonald had some involvement in the development of Merion Golf Club. Club record certainly seems to indicate that. I think it's pretty obvious that he had something to do with the Dallas Estate property being purchased. I think he gave pretty good ideas of how to get started routing the course, but probably just advised on where holes should go.
Maybe, most importantly, I think he may have seen the quality of work put forth by the men of Merion and it forced him to go back and tweak NGLA to make it even better!In the end, I feel pretty good, though, about the club being designed by Hugh Wilson and the committee.