Andrew:
There is also in the back pages of this website some really comprehensive threads about the creation of Pine Valley and the contributions to it of Colt and Crump. Most of those threads involve me and Paul Turner and Tom MacWood.
In a general sense they seem to take on the character of me promoting the fact that Crump was the primary designer of Pine Valley and MacWood and Turner promoting the fact that Colt really was.
The truth of it is the creation of Pine Valley which took almost ten years to do (about six years during Crump's life) was much more involved and complex than just that. To do the creation story of Pine Valley justice and to do both Crump and Colt justice and what they both individually and together did there needs this creation story in its entirety, and not just pieces of it like that 1914-15 Carr article). And they aren't the only ones. There is also the matter of Hugh Alison, Flynn, Wilson, Tillinghast and Travis and most certainly Jim Govan, Crump's pro/foreman who was there with him and later every day for most of the duration and who really did come up with some architectural recommendations (14th hole).
I've been threatening to write the complete and detailed creation story of Pine Valley and I hope to do it soon. I believe I can not only do it hole by hole assigning attribution but almost feature by feature assigning attribution. I think at this point I have everything there is that's available and necessary to do that.
Truly understanding the development of the routing, the long-term design and creation process of Pine Valley takes a really good time-line and I believe I have that now.
But what it really takes is the understanding of any particular fact or article in the context of not just its individual date but how it fits into the entire duration of that creation.
That's why that Simon Carr 1914-15 article can be confusing and misleading (that Carr article was actually used in a few publications).
Carr wrote that article fairly early on in the entire creation of Pine Valley. Simon Carr, by the way, along with W.P. Smith, were apparently two of Crump's closest friends and certainly the closest to him as it involved the creation of Pine Valley and what he was doing and thinking at any particular time.
Simon Carr was a Catholic priest. Both he and Smith were really good Philadelphia golfers both winning the two major tournaments in this area before the creation of PV.
Paul Turner and to some extent Tom MacWood have used that Carr article in which he gives so much credit for the design of PV to Colt as virtual proof that Colt was the primary designer of the course.
Unfortunately, one can't look at it that way because that totally fails to take into account what Crump did with Pine Valley both in the time before Colt arrived and in the years that followed that article. Not to mention the writing about Crump's development and creation of the course by both Carr and Smith in the years that followed that article that differ markedly from that 1914 article.
Turner and MacWood seemed to me to try to explain away those differences in Carr's writing in 1914 from his later writing by implying there was some general attempt to inaccurately glorify Crump and downplay Colt since Crump died suddenly in early 1918 by suicide and there is no question at all at that point that the world of golf was shocked and saddened by that.
It is not exactly true that Crump was needlessly glorified and Colt downplayed, in my opinion. If looked at and analyzed carefully all the available material and articles and writing do show what Crump did at any particular time and what Colt did at a particular time (the one to two weeks he was at Pine Valley in May-June of 1913).
But why did that article of Carr's in 1914 seemingly give Colt so much credit for Pine Valley at that time in late 1914, early 1915?
To answer that accurately one really does need to know the rest of the entire PV creation story from its beginning to that time in 1914 (almost seven years before the course was finally finished and eighteen holes were finally put into play). One also needs to fully understand where Crump was coming from and what kind of man he was as well as what kind of architect he was (and wasn't) at that time.
In my opinion, there are a few significant facts about that time in 1914 when Carr wrote that article.
First, it was the official opening of the course to some pretty comprehensive published fanfare, even if only eleven holes were playable.
Second, there were other articles right at that time by Travis and some other local newspaper writers who virtually said the same thing as Carr's article did.
In my opinion, Crump was purposefully promoting Colt as the architect of Pine Valley at that fanfare opening for fairly obvious reasons if one is truly mindful of where Crump was at that time and who Colt was at that time. If I had PV available to me in the very same ways that Crump did and I had Bill Coore by my side as Crump had Colt in that week or two in May-June 1913 do you think I would claim when the course opened even eleven holes that I designed the course and Bill Coore didn't? No way! I'd be inclined to promote Coore myself for what should be pretty obvious reasons such as---Who the hell am I architecturally and who is he architecturally?
See what I mean?
The fact is, later, and for the remaining years of Crump's life in which he both lived and worked on that course virtually every day he simply did not follow all that Colt left there by a long shot.
One needs to understand Crump, the man too, and what he was like. That's not easy to do now. It seems he was quiet in a sort of contemplative way although very hospitable, but a man of strong opinions, albeit in a quiet way, about what he wanted there. It appears that everyone who knew him just loved the guy. He was willing to both solicit the opinions of anyone about the course even if he didn't necessarily take their advice. If he didn't he never seemed to say why----he simply didn't do various things that were recommended and quietly did what he wanted to do—eg encouraging Travis to do a reverse routing and then just not doing it.
There is no question at all that Crump ultimately was the total editor of the golf course. In the end no one made decisions that got done that Crump did not somehow approve.
Matter of fact, financially Crump essentially owned the place, he bought it himself and it was largely his own money that went into the creation and construction of the course and club. However, he did not want to be the president of the club. He did not want to be on the membership committee. He left that to others of his friends. All he seemed to want to do is design and build the golf course.
He kept working on the course, that was incomplete in his lifetime, from perhaps as early as late 1912 until early 1918, through massive agronomic problems, through the time America was in WW1 and things slowed down for a time, through constant changes and tweaks as to how the course and particularly the last four holes (12-15) would turn out while fourteen of them remained in play. In the last few months he actually worked on the course with a towel in his mouth, his teeth and gums were so bad and bleeding and suppurating.
He was obviously struggling to finalize those last four holes, to get them the way he thought they should be in a "whole-course balance" sense after basically designing and constructing himself into a box or corner of the property---he was planning numerous changes on the holes he'd already built. When some asked him when he might finish the course he jokingly retorted "NEVER". He was even directly quoted in a Philly newspaper in 1917 that when he finished the course he was going to build another one right there JUST FOR WOMEN. He'd recently bought another 400 acres apparently for that purpose.
And then one day in late January 1918, after almost six years of doing not much else, and right on the cusp of completing what would become (matter of fact what was already considered to be) the greatest golf course on earth, and apparently in his cabin at PV where he'd lived alone with his dogs for about five years, not in Merchantville where his DC reads, for whatever reasons, promoted by whatever personal demons none of us will ever fully understand, he took one of his guns, put it to his head and shot himself.
I think there is a danger of assigning too much importance for this shocking and tragic act to Pine Valley. That certainly may've had something to do with it, maybe even a lot, but there is no question at all, and even despite the fact Crump was clearly a most beloved man, he was also a very complex one, albeit perhaps quietly, for other reasons. The untimely and tragic death of his young wife should probably not be overlooked in relation to the remainder of Crump's life and his eventual fate.
In my opinion, if two architects need to go on PV's attribution it is definitely Crump and Colt. If the entire detailed creation story is to be told many others could go on the course’s attribution.
But if only one name needs to go on PV's attribution it would be George Crump, there is just no question about that the real facts can support.