"Sean has a good point there. It is really difficult to separate the development of golf architecture in America from Britain, in fact, these was so much crossover its nearly impossible. CB Macdonald for example was greatly influenced by developments in the UK and by individuals in the UK. Tweedie was English, Whigham was a Scot, Campbell was a Scot, Bendelow was a Scot, Findlay was a Scot, the Dunns were Scots, the Fouliss were Scots, Watson was a Scot, Ross was a Scot, Emmet and Leeds travelled abroad often... Developments in America were an extension of developments in the UK."
I think that statement is really significant on here. Here's why:
It essentially boils down to how one wants to or tries to look at a massive subject----say golf course architecture generally no matter where it is VERSUS say golf course architecture in two distinctly different places, in this case in America in the early days in relation to golf course architecture in GB.
This basically boils down to the old "compare" or "contrast" or more efficiently in the way most of us were taught in school "Compare AND Contrast."
I completely subscribe to Sean's idea of the melting pot point if that's the way one wants to look at it but if one does they tend to either ignore or avoid any differences which of course may be extremely interesting when one gets into the "Contrast" analysis.
In MacWood's last post he mentions in those early years Tweedie was English, Whigam was a Scot, Campbell was a Scot, Bendelow was a Scot, Findlay was a Scot, the Dunns were Scots, The Foulis brothers were Scot, Watson was a Scot, Ross was a Scot----but Herbert Leeds was an American, The Fownes, Hugh Wilson, George Crump, Albert Tillinghast, Walter Travis, Dev Emmet, William Flynn, Max Behr, Robert Hunter, George Thomas etc, etc, etc et al were all Americans. Even if most all of them had an interest in the architecture of the old world they still very much had some new ideas on and about architecture that probably did not emanate from abroad and frankly that makes the need to "contrast" what was going on over here versus abroad a most interesing study and inquiry rather than just trying to "compare" it all by just throwing it into one bigy "melting pot" and leaving it at that.
If one really wants to understand some of the differences and the dynamics in architecture between what was going on over there versus over here with many of the architects of either side and nationality and what they were thinking and saying differently throughout those early years (from around the turn of the century well into the late 1920s) one should start by reading some of the ideas and opinion rich articles of A.W. Tillinghast, a really prolific writer and opinion provider throughout! He certainly had a lot to say about some of the differences (particularly from around the mid-teens on) between American architects and architecture in relation to what was going on with foreign architects and architecture abroad
