Mike Cirba asked me to post this for him:
Hi Phil,
Nice to see you back on Golfclubatlas. Thank you for sharing this remarkable information and the beautiful drawings. They certainly shift the focus and change the picture of some of our early understanding of golf in this country, particularly as influenced by the great courses and holes abroad. You mentioned that their finding may stir up some conjecture, which I believe is generally helpful as long as facts and conjecture are clearly defined and understood.
I think what those drawings prove is that artistic reproductions of famous holes were in and around Philadelphia at least a decade earlier than what was previously known and given Tililnghast's social circle I think there is very little doubt that these would have been circulated or at least have been shown to his close friends.
Any further conjecture would be tough to prove, particularly as relates to the creation of Merion. We do know that Richard Francis wrote in 1950 that "...Mr. Wilson went to the British Isles to study golf-course design, and returned with a lot of drawings which we studied carefully, hoping to incorporate their good features on our course."
Might those have been drawings Tillinghast gave him? Possibly. They could also have possibly been from CBM, who Wilson visited prior to going abroad, or they could possibly be sketches Wilson himself made of features he wanted to be able to reproduce in whole or in part.
One account of Wilson from an overseas newspaper said "...the object of Mr. Wilson's visit is that they may be kept as like the originals as it is possible for green architects to make them."
Which is cool, but of more interest to me is the next section, which indicates that much like Tillinghast, Hugh Wilson also took photographs of the famous holes.
"Mr. Wilson, who has already visited Formby and Hoylake paid a visit to Troon on Wednesday, and after a round with Harry Fernie he in the afternoon went over the course with Willie Fernie, and took snapshots of the course at various points, including the short eighth hole, the Sandhills bunker, and the eleventh hole. It is Mr. Wilson's intention to visit Prestwick, Muirfield, North Berwick, and St. Andrews before going south to inspect the courses in and around London."
Another possible source of drawings, or photos, and just certainly knowledge about the famous holes was Rodman Griscom. Jeff Silverman's new history book, Merion: The Championship Story goes into considerable detail regarding Griscom and his sister spending summers in the early 1900s under the tutelage of Ben Sayers at North Berwick, so Griscom certainly knew a redan from an Eden, and so on. As you know, Rodman Griscom was also a great friend of Tilly.
I’d also mention that although Wilson, Griscom, et.al. and Tillinghast were good and close friends, we also know that at least one of Tillinghast's updates about the Merion project took place directly from CBM while Tilly was at Garden City GC because Tilly wrote as much in 1912, referring to a conversation with CBM a year prior.
Overall, to me, I think this finding slightly redefines Macdonald’s accomplishments, putting more emphasis on his greatest achievement at The National being the creation of a single golf course with eighteen great (or near great) holes, some strategically patterned and some directly copied from great holes abroad. However, some later accounts (such as Whigham’s eulogy) virtually credit CBM solely for bringing the very concept and knowledge of what constituted a great golf hole to this country and your findings show that to be a bit of an exaggeration.
Thanks again for the marvelous contribution to golf course architectural history.
Mike Cirba