"What was the competition like to finish Pine Valley after Crump croaked."
JohnK:
As far as I can see there was no real competition amongst architects to finish Pine Valley.
But one definitely does need to ask why the club brought in Hugh Alison as they did in 1921 to produce a hole by hole recommendation report of how to finally finish off the course and put it into really playable architectural shape.
There's little question that the completion of the last four holes to be built (#12-15) were the combined efforts of the Wilsons of Merion, William Flynn (of Merion) and Crump's long-term foreman Jim Govan.
Not just that but at that time Pine Valley had a ton of practicing architects as members---eg Hugh Wilson, William Flynn, Howard Toomey (who was actually on the board at that time), George Thomas, perhaps Max Behr, and probably others. A.W Tillinghast apparently never was a member of PV but they all sure knew he was around PV enough and contributed to it with Crump at least early on. So did Travis, and probably Macdonald.
So why then did the so-called "1921 Advisory Committee" that was charged with finishing off the course once and for all and putting it into real playable shape hire Hugh Alison of England?
That is a most interesting question. And they didn't just hire him, they actually made him a member of that 1921 Advisory Committee.
My sense is they did it because they really did feel the course had a close and serious connection to Harry Colt and his company. After-all it appears that Colt was the only architect that George Crump actually hired. Obviously the club understood that. But they also understood what Crump himself had done there in the ensuing years following the final departure of Colt in 1913. This was eight years later, and it obviously seemed logical to them to turn to the company Crump himself once depended on the most. Crump undeniably appeared to listen to many people, many architects and others but in the end there is no question at all he did what he wanted to do down there. But there is no question either that of all the architects who came there and offered collaborative architectural help and suggestions to Crump, the one man who did the most for him and the course was Colt.
The very significance of Colt's suggestion to place the 5th green where it is rather than where Crump had it made the entire progression and sequence of the course fall into place. This does not at all mean that Colt actually routed or designd the rest of the holes, just that that particular placement of that green made everything perhaps almost immediately fall into an understandable routing order and sequence. The mere suggestion of that highly demanding green placement of #5 by Colt was essentially the piece that completed the jigsaw puzzle (other than the years long dilemma Crump had on 12-15, but that's another story altogether
). For that reason alone it is no wonder at all to me that Colt is given so much credit for that single recommendation on #5. One pretty much needs to understand some of the complexities of routing to understand that and why.
But the history of the creation of that course can accurately reflect that if there was one man that Crump truly once depended on most, it was without question England's Colt.
Those who have said on here that Pine Valley in some way tried to disrespect Colt by somehow minimizing him to glorify Crump just basically don't have any idea what they are talking about. That never happened down there, at least not at that time.
This in no way changes the tue story of what Colt did there and was responsible for to do with the ultimate design of that course and what Crump was ultimately responsible for in the finished product of what Pine Valley became. Those who somehow try to minimize what-all Crump did and was to that course just don't get what-all he did there and how.
The thing that's so interesting about the 1921 Advisory Committee is not just that they hired Colt's partner Alison but that ALL OF THEM, including Alison, very much worked towards completing that course in the SPIRIT and in many of the details of what they thought Crump wanted to do and intended to do had he lived to see the course mature in design and in play.
It's a unique and remarkable story, the entire creation of Pine Valley from its beginning in 1912 to its final completion in 1921-2. In my opinion, there is not another one remotely like it in the entire history of golf course architecture.