Andy,
What David isn't aware of is the Aha! moment I had two days ago in reading "America's Linksland", which has a 1915 copy of a Shinnecock Hills routing in it.
Some time back, as David mentioned, in an effort to explore what it would mean to our understanding of the origins of NGLA if indeed those articles were talking about the Sebonac Neck land I relented after days of debate to go down that road (no pun intended
).
Although it's clear that the articles speak to the specific purchase of 250 acres, and then go on to describe the boundaries of that purchase being the Shinny Golf club to the east, the Long Island RR tracks to the south, Peconic Bay to the north, and the inlet between Good Ground and the Shinnecock Station to the west, and even though that western point is precisely 1.5 miles west of today's NGLA's westernmost point, and even though the RR tracks are .35 miles south of the most southern point of NGLA, and even though I had very serious reservations about the validity and accuracy of both the articles as well as the dubious premise that they were talking about the Sebonac Neck property that CBM eventually secured and purchased , I agreed to explore it for four main reasons;
1) It's possible the writer was completely lost and had described the land incorrectly.
2) If true, this wouldn't be at all inconsistent with my main premise that the planning effort as well as the routing took weeks, if not months.
3) Unlike others here, I could be wrong.
4) I was tired of arguing about dirt roads for horse and buggies that others saw as "highways".
So, in looking up other information in that book I come across the 1915 Shinnecock Map and all of a sudden, VOILA!, it hits me that
it would have been IMPOSSIBLE for Shinnecock Hills GC to be adjacent EAST to any part of the Sebonac Neck Property, including the eventual NGLA purchase, BECAUSE THE ENTIRE SHINNECOCK GC IN 1906 IS/WAS SOUTH OF THE ENTIRE SEBONACK NECK PROPERTY. Go figure!
Then, I started digging a little deeper...
Next thing I knew I had found maps of the area that made very clear that the 1907 Land Plan that I'd published previously was clearly simply that...a proposal, and bore nothing on reality. The supposed "North Highway" cutting right through the area the article suggests CBM was interested in buying was not there at all...NADA....
Instead, it existed in the form of what looks to be a cart parth/dirt road down closer to the Railroad tracks.
So, considering all of this, I went back and said....guys...WTH? (actually, I used a slightly differnt acronym) How could they be talking about Sebonac Neck having Shinny to the east when the entirety of that property is north of the Shinny GC at that time?!?
Now...had I been an expert on early Shinnecock Hills GC I perhaps should have realized all of that prior and brought it to everyone's attention at that time, but I'm not.
I never knew til just the other day that the entire Shinny GC was south of Sebonac Neck, but that's just me.
I'm still waiting to hear now that we know that how indeed any of those articles could talk about the purchase of 250 acres adjoining Shinnecock Hills GC to the east and yet be on Sebonac Neck, because it's impossible.
But, I'm sure we'll hear some explanation...