No doubt he's good. One of the best for sure. But let's not overanalyze Ben's statement. Of course, he's biased, and of course he's going to more highly tout his partner than the competition.
The purpose certainly wasnt to over-analyze Crenshaw vis a vis his statement and obviously he's bias.
The point was to have a discussion about who, among present or past architects, in your opinion, did the best routing.
Not attacking my friend......
Surely Tom Doak has to be a part of this discussion. I think it would be fair to say that any of your "minimalist" style architects probably pay more attention to routing.
This makes sense because the philosophy of these types of architects is to take an already beautiful piece of property and lay the course down upon it as gracefully as possible.
It's somewhat difficult to break this down, though, because every job is so different. I think it will come down to personal preference. Some pieces of property were never beautiful; they never possessed any stunning natural features. In those cases a successful routing will possess different characteristics than to analyze the routing of a course on an epic piece of dunesland.
I think a Shadow Creek, for example, Chamber's Bay or Whistling Straits are good test subjects for this discussion. Shadow Creek could have been routed any old way and in some senses it wouldn't impact the final product at all.
Tom Doak once said he'd of liked to see a par 3 playing towards the water, instead of along side it, at Whistling Straits. Is this a big deal? Did Dye did a poor job of routing the course? I think it boils down to personal preference.
Chambers Bay? I personally think the decision to run the 8th hole up on the other side of the driving range to be a bad idea. Surely I would have done this differently, but it's still a pretty unobstrusive routing. Both 9s return to the clubhouse, the final stretch is along the water. I might just be nitpicking.....