If the October 15th article was accurate, and the writer meant Sebonac Neck, and it meant that CBM had somehow secured land on Sebonac Neck by that point...
then why, a few weeks later at the Lesley Cup matches at Garden City would CBM tell folks that he was down to two sites...the first in western Shinnecock HIlls near Good Ground, and the second in Montauk?
If it was already a done deal for Sebonac Neck at that point, why the need for spreading disinformation?
If it was already a done deal for Sebonac Neck at that point, why even mention the Canal Site in western Shinnecock Hills at all??
Mike,
Your biggest problem with holding the November 1 articles as true and the October one as fiction is that the October 1 came true very soon thereafter...all this word parsing aside, it happened.
Also...it wouldn't have been a done deal because nothing had been signed and no money had changed hands...
Jim,
I would disagree with your contention that the October article came true very soon thereafter.
When did CBM buy 250 acres of land that we agree could have been ANYWHERE north of the LIRR tracks (based on the description in the article) for $100,000 as described in that article?? (btw, I also agree with you that his comments 20+ years later about "wanting to be alone with nature" was simply making lemonaide out of lemons. Most of the best courses at that time adjoined railroad tracks, including his beloved St. Andrews)
Why was this supposed "scoop" not reported in any other NYC paper for the next two months if it was accurate?
The article has multiple errors, and to me the only valuable thing we find from it is that CBM was looking at sites seemingly between the Canal and Shiinnecock Hills GC at that time and perhaps had made an offer of some sort. Most of the rest of the article doesn't hold up to any known facts or close scrutiny.
I think the reason why we disagree is because you still believe that CBM didn't find the Sebonac Neck site until AFTER he had been rejected from the Canal site. I don't think that's necessarily true.
Here's what he wrote about it;
"I offered the Shinnecock HIlls & Peconic Bay Realty Company $200 an acre for some 120 acres near the canal connecting Shinnecock Bay with the Great Peconic Bay, but the owners refused it."
"However, there happened to be some 450 acres of land on Sebonac Neck, having a mile frontage on Peconic Bay, and lying between Cold Spring Harbor and Bulls Head Bay. This property was little known and have never been surveyed. Everyone thought it was more or less worthless. It abounded in bogs, and swamps...etc....The only way we could get over the ground was on ponies."
I think we're reading into it if we believe that he knew nothing about the Sebonac Neck site until after his offer for the canal site was refused.
I think both sites were still in play as of the Lesley Cup in late October 1906, AFTER that October 15th article, and exactly as was reported.
Also, it's been mentioned that my theory is somehow made up without any factual basis on the idea that CBM first likely offered for over 200 acres at the Canal Site, but then perhaps countered for only 120. However, from 1904 on...from the time CBM drew up his Founders Agreement, it was known and repeated multiple times in the press that CBM was looking for slightly over 200 acres, and we know how he saw that land being divided up...110 acres for golf, 5 acres for clubhouse and surrounds, and 1.5 acre lots for the 60 founding members...EXACTLY 205 acres. Hell, he wrote it up in the Founders Agreement, so that was clearly the expectation!
So, this whole idea that he made an offer for 120 acres is the one off here...not my theory. So why might CBM have compromised from his original goal in the case of his first offer? I think it makes perfect sense that he'd drop the building lot portion of his plan...after all, Alvord was going to be building near there and I'm sure he didn't want competition. Perhaps the site was so good that CBM was willing to adapt? What in heaven's name is unfounded or preposterous about that theory?
Instead, what's preposterous is this ridiculous idea that on one site, CBM would determine he needed EXACTLY 205 acres for just the golf course, yet on the other site would be just fine with slightly over half of that! Absurd, frankly.
So, what I think happened is that in October CBM made his original offer for the Canal Site. CBM TELLS the reporter from the NY Sun weeks later during the Lesley Cup that the Canal Site (westerly portion of Shinnecock Hills, near Good Ground) is still in play, but also throws out the negotiating ploy about a site near Montauk, and further ups the ante by saying if those don't pan out pricewise, he may have to keep looking elsewhere.
So we KNOW nothing was settled or promised between him and Alvord by the Lesley Cup. This is a fact.
If we agree that the land referred to in the October article is all of the land held by Alvord north of the tracks, then why couldn't this article have referred to an original offer on the Canal Site? Frankly, I think it was, and I also think that the writer transposed the number of acres from 205 to 250.
I do think that CBM knew about the Sebonac Neck site by this time (he'd been looking in "various sections" around Peconic Bay and the Shinnecock Hills as reported on November 1st in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle), but was still negotiating to get his preferred first site near the canal.
It's the only theory that holds up to all the facts that we do know, including the fact that by December, all of the articles talked about him securing 205 undetermined acres out of the 450 available, and that he would work with his committee to determine the holes to be copied and their yardages over the next several months. This was not a site that had been worked for months previously, but one that was the negotiated second choice after it was determined good enough after multiple horse rides by CBM and Whigham.
Here's how CBM describes what happened;
"So Jim Whigham and myself spent two or three days riding over it, studying the contours of the ground. Finally (BOLD Emphasis mine) we determined it was what we wanted, providing we could get it reasonably. It adjoined the Shinnecock Hills Golf Course. The company agreed to sell us 205 acres, and we were permitted to locate it as best to serve our purpose."
THAT is what happened by December 15, 1906. AND that is EXACTLY what was reported in the days following December 15, 1906.
The rest happened in the following months, AFTER they got agreement (secured) with Alvord to sell them EXACTLY 205 undetermined acres of 450 available, and then proceeded as follows, exactly as CBM said in the December articles they would do;
"Again we studied the contours earnestly, selecting those that would fit in naturally with the various classical holes I had in mind, after which we staked out the land we wanted."
...and completed the purchase in spring of 1907.