I had forgotten about Neville. Another good example.
Peter -
It's hard to think of CBM as humble. Everything about him was arrogant. In matters of gca, he wanted to take the best holes from Europe and make them better. It's uniquely American to think that way.
But my point about the early amateurs is simply that they had the self confidence to do it themselves. Even when they had the resources to hire tried and true professionals. Which was also uniquely American.
As it happened, some did their homework and things turned out well. Others didn't (or didn't know there was such a thing as homework) and things didn't turn out so well.
The larger point is that it has always been part of American gca that the layman had a hands on attitude. A Viennese would not suggest improvements to a Mozart concerto. A Parisian would not ask for fixes to a Matisse. But, heck, people started changing MacK courses before he had left the grounds. (I appreciate that the parallels aren't strictly apt here, but you get my drift.)
Bob