Did Chick Evans Like Pine Valley?

[Joe Bausch]

Uhhh, duh, of course he did.  Here is a 1916 Philly Ledger article that talks about his round at Pine Valley after playing in the National Amateur Tournament at Merion.

[Kyle Harris]

Hmm, playing privileges at other clubs based on playing ability...

....and they were amateurs!?

[Jeff_Mingay]

"Had it not been for the fourth hole in the afternoon, where Evans was trapped on his second shot in a huge sand pile, which is actually not a hazard as yet..."

I love coming across lines like this in old articles. It triggers a sense of golf in days gone by...

[TEPaul]

Joe:

Obviously that article is in the Pine Valley archives because Jim Finegan used it to report the story in it in his Pine Valley history book.

There's another interesting item in Finegan's PV history book involving Chick Evans which obviously says a lot about George Crump's total lack of proprietariness to allow others to offer advice and even take credit for perhaps a whole lot more to do with the design of the course than was reality. It's just another interesting example of how Crump seemed to want to foster the impression of massive collaboration.

A fairly well known photo of the 2nd hole was found in the Western Golf Association in the last fifteen years with Chick Evans' handwriting on the back that says:

"Pine Valley which I helped lay out".

That was pretty interesting since by the time Evan's first saw Pine Valley in 1916 much of the course was designed and in play.

It shows me another example of how Crump seemed to not only enjoy letting others suggest things but he actually seemed to encourage them to and to even take credit for it even if he decided not to follow their advice. It seems like he did the same thing with Travis and his reverse routing even if he decided not to do it.

[Joe Bausch]

Tom, this latest William Evans article I uncovered this afternoon is for you!  Well, I think just about everybody will enjoy this one.  Lots of good stuff in it.  This is from the November 26, 1913 edition of the Philadelphia Ledger.  Oh, by the way, in another William Evans article he admits to belonging to some smaller private club in the Philadelphia area and is chairman of the greens committee.  Also note the honor roll of people that walked the early PV layout, including of course AWT.