I see that while I was typing my last post Mike went back and significantly edited his previous post. In so doing, he provides another perfect example of his problematic methodology he and the Merionettes commonly employ. All they are out to do is some up with any alternative to the most reasonable reading of the passage, no matter how attenuated that reading may be.
If you don't believe me just look at how Mike made an about face on what the passage meant, hopping from one extremely unlikely reading to another. Mike had been arguing that the passage referred to other unidentified Alps holes CBM might designed or suggested over the years. Now, he apparently realizes that this makes no sense, but instead of going with the reasonable interpretation he throws out a rather absurd reading which again relegates CBM to his role of travel agent.
"Personally, I believe that Findlay was referring to holes and courses laid out for Wilson to see in his overseas visit by CBM. For some reason he seems to think based on his description that the Alps hole is really not well suited to the inland Merion landscape (duh!), mentioning that "famous old spot", but then says "others as laid out by CBM are really great, and launches into a list of them."
So "laid out" means planning Wilson's trip for him? Again with the CBM as travel agent theory? Absurd, even for Mike. It goes to show how desperate he and the Merionettes are to convolute the record. But that is their approach. They think that if they can come up with any other conclusion, no matter how attenuated, convoluted, and absurd, then their conclusion offsets the more reasonable reading. It doesn't work that way.
It is not that complicated. Read it without the clause mentioning CBM if it makes it easier, because the sentence still makes sense without it. Merion's 10th hole isn't good. "But many of the others [] are really great." "The others" are the other golf holes at Merion. One is bad, BUT many of the others are good.
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Mike's REAL PROBLEM with the passage is that he disagrees with the ramifications if one reasonably interprets the the passage to mean what it says. That CBM laid out the holes at Merion. Mike just cannot believe that CBM designed the course, therefore Findlay must have meant something else. His desired conclusion shapes his interpretation every time.
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Mike makes a big deal out of the fact that Findlay did not mention CBM in a later writeup. He fails to mention that, in that article, Findlay completely avoided the topic of who was responsible for the design of the course or even who "laid out" the course. He compared the construction committee to Leeds, noting that both had built the finest courses in their respective states, and then went on to effusively praise his business partner, Pickering, as Findlay was wont to do, calling Merion his "latest creation" and noting:
"He had has much of his own way in the planting of the right seed and in the general makeup of the course, and to him we owe thanks for one of the prettiest golf courses in America."
Mike and the Merionettes have tried to read this last bit as some sort of statement as involving Pickering in the planning process but that is stretching beyond all plausibility and typical of their Anyone-But-CBM approach to interpretation. There is nothing in Merion's records indicating Pickerings involvement in the design, and we know from Merion's records and Wilson's letters that the plan was approved by CBM then Merion's Board before Pickering even became involved. While Findlay was certainly putting a broad spin on it, he seems to have been talking about agronomic issues --growing grass, and aesthetic stylings --making it one of the prettiest courses in America.
None of this contradicts what Findlay had written about CBM before.
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Now I see Mike is pretending that the Findlay passage wasn't about Merion's golf course at all, but was rather about "Wilson's trip abroad." Pretty strange interpretation given that Wilson's trip abroad was supposed to be about bettering Merion's golf course.
Anyway, Findlay does eventually regress into to a discussion of the trip abroad, and throws in many of his own opinions about the courses over there, but much of the passage, including the specific discussion of Merion's 10th hole and general discussion of the others, was squarely about Merion.
The first part is all about Merion East.
- Wilson and Findlay had just spent time "wandering over the new Merion Golf Course."
- Wilson has spent so much of his time working on the course.
- Wilson wants to make the the new course the best in Pennsylvania.
- Findlay is not yet read to judge the course because it is still growing in and Pickering has yet to add the final touches.
- The new course will be ready to reveal all in the fall.
- Wilson had just returned from studying courses abroad abroad where he gathered data on how to make good golf holes, and Findlay had advised him what to look at before the trip
- Merion's Alps hole didn't stack up to the original, but the other holes, as laid out by CBM, were really great.
After this, the article goes into the details of the trip, with lots of Findlay's opinions scattered about.