C & C are simply the BEST, if not GREATEST designers of golf courses working in the business today.
There are others, many others that are equally as talented, and are also proving it each and every year. I can only hope for a Brave New World in Golf Architecture because of these people who build golf courses inspried both by Nature and Classical ideals. Those who follow those guidelines will be looked upon in the future as those who got it. Those who differ, well they'll be looked on in the same way we look upon Robert Trent Jones Sr. A nice man with an ego the size of New Jersey who did a masteful job of selling snake oil to those who wanted to buy it.
And lets get one thing straight--you will never see Bill Coore selling anything store bought, packaged, freezed dried, or even canned. He's like In-N-Out Burger. He's fresh with all quality natural ingredients that produce the same Freeking Fantastic burger each and everytime. He dictates where he wants his burger stands built and exactly who he is building his burgers for.
Those who have been to In-N-Out will know exactly what I'm talking about.
Go Bill Coore!
You can all dispute that with your claims that its a narrow-minded comment, and that its just me being me. Go right ahead. They aren't perfect, nor ever claim to be. They certainly have the least selfish attitude in the business of designing golf courses.
They are the Masters of Their Domain!
Since I'm in recovery from fast food addiction, here are my Architects and Fast Food chain comparisons.
1. Coore & Crenshaw / In-N-Out ("That's What a Hambruger is all about," is the company slogan--the same goes for C & C and golf courses)
2. Rees Jones / Taco Bell (Really isn't Mexican food, and they really aren't golf courses.)
3. Tom Fazio /Carl's Jr./Hardee's (Food that really looks good in the advertisements, but its as expensive as Hell and really is just sort of so-so as an edible food product. Fancy package with just so-so food.)
4. Jack Nicklaus/Jack in the Box (The King of Fast Food--so he thinks, that is until you realize you just ate an Ecoli-infected product. Highly creative advertising. Realized they needed to do something different so they came out with the Pannido, a pretty good sandwich on a fresh bagget, but its REALLY expensive.)
5. Robert Trent Jones Jr./Pizza Hut (Come on you New Yorkers. Is this really pizza?!?!?! My suspicions are that the cheese is really a synthetic)
6. Jeff Brauer/Wienershnitzel (The closest you'll ever get to German food in the fast food market-Some like it, some hate it, Jeff loves it!
) (10 point credit to Jeff for being a good sport about it)
7. McDonald's/Hurdzan & Fry (When McDonald's first started in "San Berdo" so many years ago, people said that the McDonald's Brothers really cared about the quality of food they put out. Lets face it. Today we go there for the Fry's/fries! The problem for years with the burgers was that Dr. Mike spent coutless hours trying to find the perfect chemicals for those burgers to make them taste better. In the end, he is finding out that he doesn't need to add all of that crap to make it taste good. Good Health means GREAT Golf. So do the old style California Greens!)
8. Kyle Phillips/Wendy's (Thinks he's a designer of true links courses like Wendy's thinks they are the procurer of real hamburgers. Tell me where the idea for a square patty came from? Does that sound like a real hamburger to you? Would I really want to go to Wendy's if there is an In-N-Out right down the street?)