In the initial post PeterP said:
"......and a limited talent is best bolstered by taking more time, as much time as it needs.
In golf course architecture, about the only example of this that I'm familiar with is Mr. Crump at Pine Valley; but I'm sure you gents have more examples.
My question is: What exactly is it that time gives to a golf course architect? How does time work to bolster his talent, i.e. the quality of the finished product/work/art?"
Peter:
As I mentioned earlier, George Crump may be one of the best examples to use to answer some of your questions about time and talent, as Crump was a first time architect---eg he'd never done anything in architecture previous to PV but he did manage to put into place a process that produced a golf course that would rather quickly become considered perhaps the greatest in the world.
So how did that happen? How did he do that?
Well, remarkably, if we look at Crump's modus operandi from the very beginning of routing and construction on until the sudden end of his life I think we can see that he actually broke most of the rules on architectural and agronomic efficiencies and still managed to pull it off wonderfully well in the end.
What doesn't seem to be particularly well known is if the idea to create Pine Valley was mostly his idea in the beginning or an idea that began to gestate amongst a number of friends, including Crump. It seems the latter may've been the way the idea first began.
We do know at first the idea was simply to provide a better place to play winter golf as that part of New Jersey is typically about 10 degrees warmer in the winters than Philadelphia. Crump and his friends were in the habit of taking the train regularly to the New Jersey shore in the winters, generally playing golf at Atlantic City CC.
In any case, Crump was the one amongst them who did the searching for the land and site for the course. It is known that he looked at a number of sites on his own and rejected them for reasons such as too many mosquitoes etc. And it is known he found the site of Pine Valley on his own----his rather famous recorded remark to his friends, "I think I've landed on something pretty fine" sort of proves that.
What is not well known is how long and how much he analyzed that site before making that remark and then basically buying the place himself with his own money.
I suspect Crump may've looked at that site and perhaps very carefully for up to nine months before making that statement and then buying the place in the fall of 1912.
It also seems apparent that after buying it he essentially spent most all his there trying to figure out how to build the course. At that point it appears a lot of his friends were there looking the place over with him.
It also appears that right around the turn of the year (1913) he began having various areas of the site cleared of trees so he could look at the landforms better for golf.
At that point I do not believe Crump had a survey or topo map of the place so at that point he was just spending his time eyeballing raw land for a course and it also just might be that he had a good deal of latitude to pick and choose and buy a good deal more than he initially did buy as well as perhaps other parcels around PV----eg the seller Sumner Ireland had a good deal more land surrounding PV than Crump initially bought. I believe Ireland may've told him he could buy whatever he wanted from perhaps app. 800 acres.
We do know that in March 1913 Crump got his first topo map and began to route the course on that topo map. It seems likely around that point Crump's vision of the course had become more than just a place to play winter golf and that his renewed vision was as an immensely difficult course that would basically serve as a regional training ground to produce better champions amongst the region's golfers.
But the first mistake he made in architectural efficiency is he began to rough shape and build holes before he'd even come close to finalizing a routing he'd be content with.
We do know that when Crump finally got England's Harry Colt (considered to be one of the finest professional architects in the world at that time) down there in the end of May and the beginning of June 1913 he already had at least four holes (#1-#4) basically roughed in and set.
And it seems pretty apparent that at that time he'd become pretty confused as to how to finalize some of the remainder of his own routing to his satisfaction.
At that point, and probably with his week or two consulatations with Colt he came up with basically a variety and balance plan for the course about not just what kind of holes he wanted on the course but also almost precisely where he wanted them in the sequence of the routing----but he still continued to build without completely finalizing his routing!!
The reason I'm mentioning all this is because there is little doubt that Crump was constructing himself right into a box or painting himself right into a corner, as it were, and this problem alone, or perhaps among others, was costing him a whole lot of time.
Doing it this way can most likely in retrospect be considered a real amateur mistake but nevertheless he soldiered on day after day, apparently willing to talk to almost anyone who was willing to offer suggestions but in the end playing the part of the kind and considerate editor and doing things his own way in the final analysis.
And when he died suddenly in Jan 1918 perhaps almost six years after he began the course was still not of 18 holes or close to the finished product some of his closest friends say he wanted.
It's an interesting and different way to go about building a golf course but it was his way and he'd never done a course before.
There is no question at all if he'd wanted to he could've simply taken the relatively comprehensive plans that Colt had left him with and given it to a foreman and a construction crew and probably finished the course and opened it for play in a year or two, but for whatever his reasons he didn't seem to want to do it that way and he didn't do it that way.
More later on the way he went about it and how it was anything but time efficient!
Nevertheless, and despite that, Crump was spending a ton of time on site to develop and create this course and it's certainly my distinct impression that all that time and effort on site combined with a willingness to seek and consider anyone's opinions was beginning to develop and release in Crump a very special talent for golf course architecture.