Mike and Henry,
I understand all of that, that's the point...it still doesn't tell us that CBM has done more than credited for to date without speculation.
I have said to many parties involved that I feel strongly (based on what has been thrown out here) that it was imperative for the Merion folks to maintain a technical timeline for various reasons but that in reality there was much more going on through the summer and fall of 1910.
Please note that this is not meant to discredit anyone at all, but it's tough for me to imagine CBM doing anything with them during that timeframe based on his June 29 letter which washes his hands of the immediate work...I also doubt CBM was just in town on a whim considering (this is a date I may have missed) he was hosting an innaugural event at NGLA July 1.
I think the committee needed and wanted his help in many respects, not the least being an understanding of his experience with the development package from NGLA which gives the golf course right of first refusal on a subset of land purchased with the remainder going to real estate...
Jim,
This is a really important and pivotal post in my opinion.
It seems to me that we've all sort of bought into the idea proposed in David's essay that if anything happened on the property prior to November 15, 1910 it had to be Macdonald's doing because Hugh Wilson didn't get appointed to the Construction Committee til early 1911.
Yet, that is completely preposterous, and not supported by a single fact and is in fact absolutely refuted by the most important piece of evidence produced to date...the June 29th, 1910 CB Macdonald letter in which he makes clear that he is NOT in charge, nor is he personally involved, nor is he sure that a golf course will fit, nor is he sure that the inland soil is going to work for them, and oh, by the way, the historical record show that he's got his own plate full back home at the course he's been working on for over four years that HE is trying to get opened to members back in Southamption NY!
This belief also requires acceptance of something that is totally illogical; that Hugh Wilson was somehow kept under Plastic Wrap like the Bubble Boy until he was somehow suddenly unveiled in February 1911,
AS HEAD OF A FREAKING COMMITTEE WHOSE MEMBERS INCLUDED GIANTS OF INDUSTRY LIKE H.G. LLOYD AND RODMAN GRISCOM...THE VERY LEADERS OF WHAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST RENOWNED AND PRESTIGIOUS CLUBS ON THE PLANET.
This is absolutely and certifiably INSANE.
Why in heaven's name would Merion have made him the Leader of this critical effort if they didn't have the utmost understanding and belief in him, but more importantly,
why would they have kept him out of the loop as far as what they were doing on the proposed land most of 1910?!? Why would they create a formal committee to design and build the golf course BEFORE the actual land purchase took place, which happened when Lloyd secured the property formally in December 1910?
But that doesn't mean that they weren't out there prior, almost assuredly they would have been.
We know from Joe Bausch's research that we were able to track much of Wilson's activities every year of his life...except for 1910.
We also know that AW TIllinghast bemoaned the fact that Hugh Wilson was among a few not playing in the regular tournaments that year.
Might he have been tied up elsewhere?
In the case of Barker, it doesn't appear from the July 1, 1910 letter that they even bothered to attach the routing he produced for Connell to what they sent to their Board.
In the case of Macdonald, we know exactly what he provided in 1910. There is not a single shred of evidence that either of these men had even a single word of communications with Merion the rest of 1910.
Yet, we've all become so influenced by David's theory that we've somehow fallen victim to this thinking that the Francis Land Swap happened before November 1910, then it couldn't have been done by the Merion gang.
wow...we're pretty dumb sometimes. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.