By the way, the other man mentioned as "laying out" Cobbs Creek in that article, A.H.(Ab) Smith, was the brother of W.P. Smith who appears to be one of Crump's closest friends and also one of two men (with Father Simon Carr) who seemed to be closest to Crump and what he was doing and what he was thinking about the course through his years of creating Pine Valley.
W.P. Smith appears to have kept something of a dated chronicle on various holes about what Crump was wanting to accomplish.
W.P. Smith's hole by hole recollections of Crump's intentions along with the hole by hole recollections by Father Simon Carr of Crump's intentions together make up what I call "The Remembrances" which the 1921 Advisory Committee that was charged with finishing off the course essentially to Crump's intentions and while working with Hugh Alison used.
W.P Smith and his brother A.H (Ab) Smith were also part of that early group of friends and golfers that frequented Atlantic City CC before the creation of Pine Valley. Those men were also one hand for the birth of the birdie at Atlantic City CC.
W.P Smith was a really good player and probably the best of the lot.
Tom Paul,
We've been waiting for you.
It seems that this is a wonderful case of what we've collectively termed "collaboration" among extended members of the Philadelphia School of Design.
Your details about the Smith brothers seems very consistent with Joe Bunker/Tillinghast's? accounts of the design plan being laid out by Wilson, Crump, Smith, Klaudner, all under the oversight of Parks Engineer Jesse Vodges, who was responsible for implementing their plan and supervising construction.
It would be really interesting to learn exactly how much any or all of these gentlemen were onsite during construction, Tom, because we were there last weekend and it's probably been about a decade since I've last played there, but what struck me was the degree of naturalism and sophistication in both the original design and the greens and surrounds.
I know many times over the years you've talked about creating a course without bunkering that just used native land forms creatively and Cobbs Creek is pretty darn close to that model. In fact, at its best, it's really "gravity golf" at it's finest. Almost all of the limited bunkering that is there is simply placed to prevent balls from going into really horrific spots, or continuing on into other fairways where they might interrupt play.
I've read accounts that stated that bunkering and artificial hazards would be placed later, after some experience with how the course played, and my guess is that those plans were interrupted by some of the issues around WWI, and the fact that right from the beginning, Cobbs Creek drew way more play than anyone ever anticipated, so the idea of doing additional construction probably was never convenient.
In any case, it really doesn't need it. Truthfully, except for the fronting bunker on today's number 10, and perhaps those on 17, you could remove every bunker on the course without changing much in the way of playability. In fact, it might even be more difficult, as mentioned earlier.
It does seem that Wilson's modus operandi (as evidenced at Seaview) was to do the layout first, and artificial hazards later. Given his penchant for routing terrific natural holes, it's really a tribute to both him and the others who were involved that the architecture of Cobbs Creek is as scintillating as it is, even without the addition of much in the way of artificial hazards, and still keenly visible after all of these years.
I think it's time that we try to make it what it should be. Certainly the lineage of Wilson and Crump shouldn't be treated as the bastard orphan of public golf in Philadelphia.