Tom,
My post you quoted there was about Merion, not NGLA.
I should have re-specified when I double-posted last night.
Please show me where I attacked CBM in any way, either in this thread, or in the long-running one that shows all the contemporaneous news articles?
I did object to the ridiculous, unsupported modern portrayals here by some that he 1) routed the course on two days on land they couldn't even walk but had to ride on ponies, and that he 2) first secured a specific 205 acres that fit the routing like a glove, both of which are disproven by those articles, but used by their creators to try and promote their Merion Distory.
In fact, I thought the articles showed a much more realistic effort and much more complimentary version of CBM as taking meticulous, almost herculean effort to build his ideal course, as most of these amateur efforts were. The idea that he'd do a slam-bang, two-day routing was antithetical to much of what he objected to about the earliest courses in America.
In terms of cross comparisons between the creations of NGLA, Merion, and Pine Valley, I find interesting similarities and differences, particularly how they went about the land acquisition and course routing process. My understanding after reading the all the contemporaneous accounts is that each club first scoured the land looking for natural features they could use for golf, then secured (Crump bought PV outright) enough acres to encompass those features (in the case of NGLA and Merion, with borders subject to revision based on future completion of routing), then spent some months determining the placement of all 18 tees, fairways, and greens before actually completing each purchase.
In the case of Pine Valley, the land Crump bought originally (184 acres) was indeed enough to encompass his golf course, but he later bought a lot of additional land for other purposes, including isolation. We all know that his routing process ended up taking a few years.
In the case of Merion, they first estimated (after meeting with CBM) they'd need about 120 acres for their golf course, secured 117, likely with the intent of also leasing the 3 acres of railroad land to get to 120, but because the golf course boundaries were still undetermined, ended up through Lloyd buying all of the 161 acres of the Johnson Farm and Dallas Estate. By the time of purchase after the routing was completed the next spring, Merion ended up needing to buy 120 acres, and leased 3 for a total of 123. At Merion, they were motivated to keep the routing and acreage as tight as possible to maximize the value of the adjacent housing component where they had first dibs.
In the case of NGLA, CBM and Whigham mentioned from 1904-06 that they'd need just over 200 acres for their plan that was to include a golf course and founder's building lots. Their initial offer letter mentioned that they'd need around 110 acres for golf and 60 1.5 acre building lots. CBM ended up securing 205 acres in Nov/Dec 1906 with boundaries that were uncertain to give CBM latitude in locating his golf course. After a few more months studying the property and staking the grounds to that routing, he eventually completed the purchase in the spring of 1907 (although George's book mentions Nov 1907 as the sale date). He ended up using approximately 165-170 acres of the 205 for the golf course, leaving not enough land for the originally planned building lots.
As regards your Arts and Crafts essay, please also show me where I ever attacked it?
Frankly, the whole issue of golf architecture's tie to larger building and garden architectural issues is of only mild interest to me, and i only read parts of the whole...perhaps your first essay, as I recall. I know next to nothing about that movement and wouldn't/couldn't even try to speak intelligently about it.
That's ok...it generated a lot of discussion, and others of yours I read like George Crump's I enjoyed a great deal and thought it was well-researched and fairly analyzed.
Finally, what "myths" are you talking about specifically? Can you list them?
It appears at least some knew that George Crump died of his own hand back then, but the family likely asked those closest to him to keep it a private matter. Still apparently guys like Geoff Shackleford and Tommy knew it back when I played golf with them at Rustic Canyon about 15 years ago, so I'm not sure what's mythical about that?
As far as Wilson's trip, early accounts said he traveled "before anything was done to the course initially", and/or other words to that effect. Considering that most of what was mentioned as being done to the course based on overseas influences (i.e. Mid-Surrey Mounding, an Alps that "take(s) a lot of making, bunkers added over time to emulate hole strategies from abroad, etc.), was done during construction, which is when he went abroad, I think the timing of his trip simply got misinterpreted over time based on the language used in those early articles, not some nefarious plot.
Any others?