Entering the realm of
speculation,
let's assume that Francis was looking at a map with a 117 acre boundary that looked like Mike's mirror road (which actually does define 117 acres);
which road makes some sense since it comes down the Haverford College boundary and doesn't create any useless triangles;
and, Francis says to himself, damn, those last five holes just aren't going to fit up there in the north end;
so, he says to himself, we need to get some more acre to the west of the mirror road up towards the north end, let's cal that Area E (for extra acres);
but, then sheesh, we still can't fit those darn five holes in;
but, if we got a 120 x190 yard area up next to Haverford College that we'll call Area F (for Francis) we could run a hole up there and then come back down;
but, Lloyd and Connell are not happy that we're biting so much into the development land, so we'd better give them some acres back somewhere else;
well, we don't really need all that space across from the clubhouse, that we'll call Area X (for eXtracted), so why don't we swap it back to the development side and let them build those big mansions there.
So, the boundaries were redrawn, the acreage worked out to 120 and Lloyd was able to secure it for the same price as the 117. A great couse gets built and all live happily ever after (at least until 2009).
For the record:
Mirror Road golf course area 117.0 acres
Area F 4.8 acres
Area E 3.2 acres
Area X 5.0 acres
Merion July 26, 1911 acreage 120.0 acres
And, there you have it, a scenario that accommodates Francis' description of the "swap" and the addition of three acres by July 26, 1911.