"TEPaul,
I think you have to remember that Barker was the PRO at GCGC, not the architect.
Pat:
I realize that; I've realized it for some years now. I think it is Tom MacWood you need to direct that remark to!
"Westhampton is a clone design, a hybrid NGLA."
I know that; I've known it for many decades. I think you need to direct that remark to Tom MacWood, not me!
"Why would you hire the Pro at GCGC versus the originators of the template holes at NGLA ?"
I think that is also a question that is far better asked by yourself of Tom MacWood, not me. I understand precisely why you ask it but apparently he doesn't and never has understood it. Good luck on trying to get even a remotely clear or intelligent answer to the question from him by the way. Don't forget, MacWood thinks Barker is the man who designed Merion East one December day in 1910 during a train ride from New York to Georgia and he has also said that he believes HH Barker was considered to be the second best architect in America at the time.
David Moriarty referred to MacWood's opinion on Barker in his essay "The Missing Faces of Merion."
From David Moriarty's "The Missing Faces of Merion:"
"H.H. Barker Plans a Golf Course[9]
To make the offer even more enticing, the developers even tried to supply the golf course, or at least the architect and design. They brought in a professional golf course architect, H.H. Barker, to inspect the site and to draw up a plan. Barker, originally from Yorkshire England, was a well-known golf professional at Garden City Golf Club. He had been a protégé of Sandy Herd and, just as Herd had, Barker left a promising amateur career to turn professional. According to Walter Travis, he and Barker had often discussed golf course design at Garden City, and Travis had encouraged Barker to pursue a career the golf course design business.[10] Barker’s design career was cut short when he returned to England in 1915 to join the Royal Air Force. Prior to that, he may have been the best-known professional golf course architect regularly practicing in America, and was probably second only to C.B. Macdonald among both amateurs and professionals. At the time he planned the course for Merion, Barker claimed to have already planned upwards of 20 courses. In the July 1914 issue of Outing magazine, the great British champion Harry Vardon wrote that Barker’s Mayfield Country Club in Ohio was the best course in America."
"[9]Tom MacWood, who has researched Mr. Barker’s career as a golf course designer, generously supplied much of the information regarding Barker’s history and courses."