Mark
a neat question. I know just a little Wind and just a little Darwin, but I think I disagree with you.
I think 'influence' can take many forms, and that Wind's influence -- in terms of golf course architecture, if not on writing -- is of a more popular and ephermeral variety. Has anyone ever been inspired to take up gca or to design a magnificent course because Wind coined "Amen Corner"?
(as you know, based on the song by Mezz Mezzrow, a poor clarinettist, by the way, and IMHO not even quirky enough to be interesting, but popular amongst great jazz men because he was a key supplier of, let's say, an embellishment, to late night parties and jam sessions).
I would say that Darwin's influence, on the other hand, is deeper if more subtle. I think that as one of the first non-architects to write about gca, his beautifully-written articles on golf in general and on gca in particular conveyed a message deeper -- and more lasting -- than the words themselves, and that message went something like: "That a grandson of Charles Darwin and writer of such elegance and craft would chose to spend his life and creative talents discussing golf course architeture suggests that this craft, and the pastime of golf it supports, is worthy of attention, and worth the effort to learn about and appreciate its history and enduring principles".
That message never makes the papers, of course, and it's hard to quantify, but I think it has probably led many to a passion for gca, and led some -- through Darwin himself or his descendents -- to become architects themselves.
Just a guess, of course. And by the way, I don't mind Jim Nantz waxing poetic over the same shot of number 12 year after year; I think I enjoy it in fact, a lot. But "Amen Corner" is so pithy a phrase that it means not much at all, or at least doesn't convey any "meaning" much beyond the words themselves. And of course, the trees are gone at Oakmont.
Peter