Mike,
I think the disagreement is quite simply over the definition of the word "UNDETERMINED".
In this context you are defining it as: not yet contemplated. David and Patrick (and a mostly uninformed me as well) are defining it as not yet totally complete.
I would ask this...as I did during the Merion threads...why would CBM lock himself in to an area he wasn't sure he could use when he had the opportunity to take the time to become sure he was going to use it, and how he was going to use it?
Jim,
You've got it essentially, but I'd like to clarify one thing. The source material makes no mention of the land for the golf course having been "undetermined" at the time the option was signed. And it certainly makes no mention that
"CBM [] formally signed papers to "secure" 205 "undetermined" acres out of 450 available" as Mike Cirba falsely claims. This is a blatant misrepresentation of the source material, as is this:
"By all accounts, including CBM's in his book, the "Option" was for an "undetermined' 205 acres out of the 450 available, which would be determined AFTER CBM routed the course and staked out the holes and the exact boundary lines of the property."By all accounts? Complete b.s. Mike Cirba is just making things up. Again.
NONE of the various accounts we've discussed say anything about CBM obtaining an option for an "undetermined" 205 acres out of 450 acres. To the contrary, the land optioned is described with some degree of specificity. Here is some of what CBM is quoted as saying about the land at the time the option was signed:
"We have a stretch at out disposal of four acres in width and two miles long. The exact lines will not be staked out until the committee has finished its plans, for latitude has been given to us in this respect, as all concerned want the course to be ideal." He is talking about a two mile stretch of property which was four acres wide.* The land was also described in the articles a "strip." He isn't talking about all 450 acres! And CBM does not say that the option allowed him to choose any acres he wanted. All he said was that the "exact lines" would not be staked out until they done planning. It sounds like he could
adjust the boundaries, but there is nothing about him being able to choose any 205 acres out of the entire parcel! He doesn't say that he had yet to determine the location or stake it out. Only that it would not be finalized with exact lines until later.
Moreover, this wasn't just any two mile strip of land to be chosen anwhere in the 450 acres. It was a specific strip of land.
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"Bullshead bay will be skirted for about one mile, and at the end of the point there is an opportunity to reproduce the famous short at St. Andrews." But there are other opportunities as delightful --for instance, to duplicate the Redan hole at North Berwick." When Whigham saw a certain knoll with me he cried out, "We will make a better Alps hole than at Prestwick.-
A modern in is being built within 200 or 300 yards of our first tee by modern interests. -
At the narrow end of Bullshead Bay, where the promontory joins the mainland, is an opportunity for a perfect water hazard, to be arranged of varying widths so that while a strong driver with a following wind may attempt a 240 yard carry to the green, it will be possible to take a shorter angle to the fairgreen and get home in two.'Yet these guys claim that, at this point, CBM hadn't gotten around to figuring out which 205 decided which of the 450 acres he would chose? Impossible.
According to these guys all that had happened before the option was that Whigham and CBM had ridden the property for a couple of days. If so, then it was a hell of a few days! At the very least they found the Cape, found the Alps, found the Eden, found the Redan, figured out that their first was close to the new Inn, knew the course was two miles long with about four acres width, knew it bordered Bullshead Bay for a mile. Doing all that on the horseback ride sure doesn't jibe with Mike Cirba's continued claims that the land was impenetrable, and that ll they had done on the horseback ride as look at the soil and determine that the 450 acres would generally be sufficient!
Indeed, this is one of the places Mike has painted himself into a corner. He claims that
when they rode the property, all they did was examine the soil and look at the general suitability of the land for golf. Nothing about routing. And he also claims that
riding the property was all that happened before they optioned the land. Taken together, these two claims are ridiculous, given the articles above.
These articles were written at the time they optioned the property, and they not only describe a substantial portion of the routing, they also describe the land they had optioned, and it was NOT an "undetermined" 205 acres out of the entire 450!
Also, if all that had happened was that CBM and HJW had ridden the property, then why do the articles state that "Emmett, Travis, Chauncey, Watson, and others" had already been over the land? Why do the October articles state that CBM and HJW had already been over the site several times?
A more reasonable explanation is that Cirba and Company are misreading Scotland's Gift. There is no justification for pretending the chronology ends with "after which we staked out the land we wanted." From there the chronology continues, with CBM first describing the land they had chosen, then writing that they optioned the property in November (really December) and purchased the property the following spring? What would come after purchasing the property? Developing the property, and that is precisely what CBM covers next. They began developing the property.They needed topsoil for the impoverished soil. At first they would try to do without a club house but after the fire they needed one and it turned out great.
CBM then turned to the golf holes, and while he does again mention having found the Alps and Redan, this time he is focused on describing the actual golf holes, how he built them, and how they ended up better than there models. This is not a rehash of the routing discussion, but a discussion of the actual holes as built. And he discussed all of the golf holes based largely on the holes abroad and mentions all the others as either composites or originals. It isn't just a rehash of the first few he found. It isn't a routing discussion at all.
Go back to Mike's outline. He readily agreed that the routing took place when
CBM and Whigham again studied the contours earnestly, selecting those that would fit in naturally with the various classical holes CBM had in mind. Well read those articles. This had already taken place by the time of the option. They had studied the land and described the land they wanted.
Compare his description of the land he found in Scotland's gift to his description of the land in those December articles. It is THE SAME LAND:
- They found a place for the Alps, Redan, and Eden.
- They "skirted Bull Head Bay for about a mile."
- The first hole was to be near the Inn.
This description appears in both those articles at the time of the option and Scotland's gift. So how can these guys argue that the land wasn't chosen at the time CBM acquired the option. The articles were written at the time the option was obtained!
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[*One confusing aspect of CBM's description is that the property was two miles long by four acres wide. The two miles makes sense. Measuring along Peconic Bay, and then along Bullshead, and then to the first tee is almost exactly two miles. But the width of the strip varies from around 200 yards to around 400 yards. Acreage is a measure of area, not distance, so it makes no sense to speak of four acres length. Rather than try to give an exact width of an inexact strip, he seems to have done some simple math based on the total acreage. Were the land an actual rectangle two miles long and 205 acres total, the width would equal very close to four times the length of one side of one square acre (about 281 yards to about 278 yards.) Not sure if this is right but it would perhaps explain the thought process. Anyway this doesn't quite work because the land is not a true rectangle, and the two miles is measured along the coast.]