more on Hugh Wilson, Bill Flynn, and Pine Valley, etc

[Joe Bausch]

Those of you that like reading old newspapers will enjoy this article from the 1919 Evening Ledger.  For those of you that treat many of these articles as misinformation/bad writing/poor editing, well, please ignore.  

(if your web browser is like mine, click on the article below to expand it further for easier reading).

[TEPaul]

Joe:

Interesting article there with a lot to remark about versus what it says and what actually happened.

Jim ("Jimmie ) Govan was PV's pro, greenskeeper, clubmaker and Crump's constant construction foreman from March 1914 on. Pine Valley had some massive agronomic problems a couple of times and particularly in the war years and just after Crump died. After the War and particularly after Crump died the club was at a certain lose as to what to do next. The decision was made to concentrate on putting the course in shape first (versus spending the money to complete the final uncompleted four holes) as a result of its miserable condition as the grass just wasn't growing properly.

The Wilson brothers (both PV members) and the Merion contingent (including Flynn) was brought in. Hugh became the Green Chairman and Flynn was put on the payroll in 1919 and he worked on the course constantly for up to six months from the spring into the fall of 1919 but Jim Govan was still the pro and greenkeeper at that time and they worked together on the course (the so-called "Agronomy Letters" fairly chronicle this). Govan would remain as the greenkeeper until Len Mattiace took over that position around 1925. Jim Govan would remain as the pro/clubmaker for many years and eventually his son George took over from him in that capacity (even though simultaneously George Fazio became Pine Valley's "Playing Pro") during some of George Govan's years as the regular PV golf professional.

Another good reason one needs to go to not just newspaper articles but club records for more complete historical accuracy.

Why don't you tell Tom MacWood that? I've been trying to tell him that for years but to date it does not seem to have even made a dent on him! 

[Mike Cirba]

Joe,

I believe this might have been asked and answered, but do we think "Peter Putter" was William Evans?

Great article...thanks!

[TEPaul]

Mike:

I would say that even in 1919 Philadelphia Inquirer golf writers did not also write for the Philadelphia Public Ledger even under some separate byline or pseudonym (unless they were A.W. Tillinghast or someone of his hugely facile and imaginative mind). "Byline" or "wire" articles were a common thing in that era and later eras but generally not in the same town for pretty obvious reasons. For some other obvious reasons I would love to know how long George Childs was the publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. I don't even know when the guy died. Do you?

[Mike Cirba]

Mike:

I would say that even in 1919 Philadelphia Inquirer golf writers did not also write for the Philadelphia Public Ledger even under some separate byline or pseudonym (unless they were A.W. Tillinghast or someone of his hugely facile and imaginative mind). "Byline" or "wire" articles were a common thing in that era and later eras but generally not in the same town for pretty obvious reasons. For some other obvious reasons I would love to know how long George Childs was the publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. I don't even know when the guy died. Do you?

Tom,

Joe has way more information in terms of which papers were active and which writers were active at which times than I do.   I just know I love reading some of this stuff that was written contemporaneously.

The part I'm still trying to understand is this....

Why would Hugh Wilson be given such public credit for sticking stakes in the ground to someone else's plans almost a decade later in the case of Merion East?   After all, if he "laid out" the golf course, haven't we been instructed that he simply mind-numbingly was instructed to go dirve stakes into the ground to indicate tees, fairway lines, and greens?  

What I'd really like to know as a result of this article is....

If he "mostly" laid out Cobb's Creek, who drove the other stakes in?    

John Henry perhaps?  

[TEPaul]

Strike that! George Childs died in 1894 only one year after Anthony John Drexel died. Essentially Drexel bought the Philadelphia Public Ledger for Childs. Drexel's last son was named Anthony George Childs Drexel (seemingly because Childs had no children) and he was a man of most interesting and varied prominence including awesome yachts, houses and other and various things. Today, actor John Travolta lives in Anthony George Childs Drexel's summer mansion in Isleborough (Dark Harbor) Maine. Saint Aloyisious School on Bryn Mawr Avenue is Anthony George Childs Drexel's old estate in Philadelphia.

About a year ago even though I've driven by St. Aloyisious a thousand time, I stopped in there and introduced myself. I asked for the name of the historian of the estate and was told it was Sister Mary Reardon.

So eventually I called her and introduced myself. That's as far as I got before she said: "I know exactly who you are and I read GOLFCLUBATLAS.com too and I can tell you right now that Hugh Wilson designed the East and the West courses and I can tell you that Charlie Blair Macdonald was basically a reprobate schmuck who had very little to do with the course despite what that liar and lying sinner Whigam said about Merion in his eulogy to him in 1939."

She also told me that, in her opinon, MacWood, Moriarty and even Mucci are historical golf architectural idiots and troglodyts with the research and analtyical ability of a second grade Guinea Hen! And who am I to argue with the power and prescience of the Catholic Church?!

[Mike Cirba]

Tom,

While I'm not sure how much stock I'd put in the credibility of the Catholic Church in matters of truth these days, I would say unequivocally that the good Sister has a good point.

[TEPaul]

"Tom,
While I'm not sure how much stock I'd put in the credibility of the Catholic Church in matter of truth these days, I would say unequivocally that the good Sister has a good point."


On second thought, after years of intense research, perhaps I should conclude with what you concluded with and that would be "**"   

[Mike Cirba]

**