I've long contended that one of the strongest pieces of evidence against the Francis Swap incorporating ALL of the land of the triangle is simply that it makes no rational sense. Francis described how the committee was pretty easily able to locate 13 holes south of the clubhouse but had trouble fitting the last five. The bottom line to me is that there is no way they would have routed 13 holes in the first place KNOWING that they were so restricted in the land available to place their five finishing holes if the northern boundary stopped abruptly 65 yards past the quarry. It would have been an exercise in absurd futility.
What makes it even more preposterous from a believability standpoint is Francis's contention that he swapped land west of the present course that "wasn't part of any golf layout". The fact is if the northern boundary was truncated at the Haverford College line, only 65 yards beyond the quarry, there is simply NO land available that wouldn't have been part of any golf plans...they would have had to try and squeeze every last morsel from the property.
What makes that contention even more absurd is that there was no historical sub-division of the northeastern quadrant of the Johnson property anywhere short of College Avenue. Early news accounts talked about the course property running north to College Avenue and we know the Johnson Farm boundary land ran to there. So with M&W advising that much could be made of the quarry, and land available for Merion north of the quarry for another 400 or so yards, it's completely illogical to think that they would have short-sheeted themselves in such a manner.
So, when we came up with the exercise of doing a routing, my contention all along is to try and come up with a routing that took in only the land that Barker and M&W almost certainly looked at in June 1910, which was simply the 119 acres of the northeastern and southern quadrants of the Johnson Farm. This was the only land that HDC owned outright at the time, and the Dallas Estate wasn't even under option yet.
It also matches exactly the Site Committee's report that "it is probable that nearly 120 acres would be required for our purposes".
So, with that being said, and with apologies for the crude drawing, here is my attempt to route a course on the Johnson Farm. Obviously I've used a few existing holes, but I think it shows a few things;
1) Anyone can do a one-day routing, for better or worse. This took me about 2 hours total. I'm now going to change my name to Mike Barker.
2) The Johnson Farm plus the 3 acres of RR land M&W recommended would easily accommodate M&W's hypothetical, ideal 6000 yard course. This one measures 6494.
3) We know that whatever Barker came up with for Connell in June 1910, there is no evidence of it being used or even presented to Merion and we also know that the Committee worked on many plans of their own from Jan-Apr 1911 and that M&W helped them select the best one.
I'm quite sure critics of my brilliant routing will come along here and I welcome any and all comments.
Yardages
1 - 328 Par 4
2 - 416 Par 4
3 - 180 Par 3
4 - 477 Par 5
5 - 382 Par 4
6 - 110 Par 3
7 - 438 Par 4
8 - 342 Par 4
9 - 450 Par 5
3126 Par 36
10 - 200 Par 3
11 - 285 Par 4
12 - 430 Par 4
13 - 326 Par 4
14 - 444 Par 4
15 - 452 Par 5
16 - 546 Par 5
17 - 240 Par 3
18 - 445 Par 4
3368 Par 36
6494 Par 72
p.s. The crossover of my "Edien" 10th hole and my "Road" 11th is my ode to St. Andrews and the classic influences I learned on this website, so all of you should clearly be credited with my actual design.