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Born in Philadelphia in 1871, Crump spent his formative years across the Delaware in New Jersey, particularly Merchantville and Camden, which is just 14 miles from the product of his obsession - Pine Valley Golf Club, the finest collection of golf holes on the planet.
Since the inception of its "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses" rankings in 1966, Golf Digest's list has become the standard by which elite golf courses are measured. In the 43 years the list has been published, which is done so biennially, there has only been a single instance when Pine Valley didn't occupy the apex of American golf.
Much of the details about Pine Valley's formation are now lost on the readers who simply equate the course with its top-tier status. But before Pine Valley became synonymous with and virtually unchallenged for the title of "Greatest Golf Course Ever Constructed Anywhere", the course was synonymous with Crump.
Crump was a member of many golf clubs, notably Philadelphia Cricket Club, Huntingdon Valley Country Club and Atlantic City Country Club. His single-minded focus would begin to manifest itself, as Crump's passion made him one of the best golfers in the city a few short years after taking up the game.
But Crump and his close friends, often referred to as the "Ballsome", which included then journalist A.W. Tillinghast, who would eventually become famous as a golf course designer, deemed the Philadelphia golf scene an inadequate breeding ground for championship golfers. The men believed the city's courses were not of championship merit and its location wasn't suitable for year-round play. If the city were to develop world-class players, it was necessary to build a true test that would give rise to greater abilities.
This ideology and a philosophy that championship-level golf courses would spawn highly-skilled golfers is said to be the primary inspiration in the creation of Pine Valley.
It's ironic that the exclusivity of the club hasn't allowed it to become a golf factory, producing champion golfers year after year. The design of the course, which doesn't allocate room for thousands of spectators, has also kept Pine Valley from hosting any significant professional tournaments. Except for two Walker Cup matches - and those nearly 50 years apart - Pine Valley has never hosted a national or international competition. The only time the club has had mainstream exposure was a 1962 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf match between Gene Littler and Lord Byron Nelson.
The most significant competition to annually take place on the grounds is the Crump Cup, an invitational golf tournament for mid-amateurs that was first held in 1922 and is named for the club's distinguished founder. Aside from the tournament-play aspect of the event, the Crump Cup is the one time each year that Pine Valley opens its gates to the public. During the final round spectators who wish to are able to tour the course and view tournament play.
Many outside forces influenced the development of Pine Valley, but make no mistake; Crump was the mastermind, the driving force and the unquestioned heart and soul of the project. Creating Pine Valley was Crump's destiny, the vision and passion to do so came from within, and while external forces were required to bring the project to its eventual conclusion, Pine Valley was the byproduct of Crump's tireless effort. Family, friends and significant others certainly help to shape our lifetimes, often changing their course, but in the end, we are the lone architects as Crump was here.
The other man credited with having a significant footprint on Pine Valley is H.S. Colt, a famous English architect of that time. Crump brought in Colt for a consultation, which he was paid for, and Colt echoed Crump's belief that the land had all the potential of becoming a legendary layout. While Colt had an impact on the final product, he wasn't nearly as instrumental as Crump and contributed more in the technical aspects of design. As one writer put it, "Pine Valley's framework was Colt's, but the course's spirit was Crump.
There are two different accounts of how exactly Crump discovered Pine Valley that have become popular, and both stories have more or less coalesced into one credible tale. It is said that Crump was making a regular trip to the coast, specifically Atlantic City by way of the Reading Railroad, when he peered out his window and gazed upon the site that would become Pine Valley. But legend has it that Crump was smitten with the site as a hunting ground, not a golf course. However, when he finally walked the land with gun in hand, he noticed it was remarkably well suited for his vision of America's greatest golf course.
Crump would purchase the land with the money he made from the sale of the Colonnade Hotel in Philadelphia, which he had sold for anywhere between $300,000 and $1 million. It is estimated that Crump spent upward of $250,000 of his own money on Pine Valley; a figure that would be in the neighborhood of $4 million today.
At a time when earth moving was not a popular practice among golf course architects, Crump brought in enough man power to transform the sandy-soiled forest into an 18-hole course. It is estimated that 22,000 trees were uprooted during this process.
The project began in 1913 and it was initially predicted to be complete and ready for play by fall of 1914. However, a variety of problems were encountered throughout construction which included establishing the turf and the stalemate created by World War I. When the course was still incomplete in the fall of 1917 despite the massive amount of money that had been poured into the project some started to label it as "Crump's Folly."
Crump never lived to see his life's work completed; he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in January of 1918 in Merchantville.
The duo of Alan Wilson, who took care of the turf problems and Hugh Wilson, celebrated amateur golf architect, completed the final four holes and in 1921 Pine Valley introduced its full 18. Just a year later, the course had grown in and was experiencing ideal playing conditions.
His death was greeted with great surprise and sadness by his friends in the golf community. Tillinghast wrote, "This course must ever be a monument to the man who found it and made it."
A Course Recognized for its Cumulative Strength
A famous quote by Robert Trent Jones, one of the world's most noted golf architects, quickly answers the question as to why Pine Valley is so revered. "To my way of thinking, Pine Valley possesses more classic holes than any other course in the world - ten of eighteen," said Jones. "Of the remaining holes, five are outstanding, two are good, and one, the twelfth, is ordinary, which at Pine Valley, is tantamount to being a misfit."
Before you start feeling badly for poor No. 12, Pine Valley isn't a bad place to be characterized as the runt of the litter. The place is home to more great golf holes than any other course on the globe.
Perhaps the most recognizable hole is the par-5, 580 yard 7th. In comparison with the course's other 17 holes, the undulation on this three-shot beauty is relatively tame. What has been called the flattest stretch of land on the course, No. 7 is protected by the course's single most famous hazard - Hell's Half Acre, which bisects the fairway from the 285 to the 380 yard mark.
The design principles utilized by Crump are legendary. First he stuck by the belief that no hole should be laid out parallel to the next. By utilizing all 184 acres of the land he purchased, which later grew to over 600, Crump could constantly change the direction of holes; there were never more than two holes in succession that followed the same direction. Also, Crump believed that players shouldn't be able to see any hole other than the one he was playing. He also thought it was necessary to make a golfer use every club in his bag and this was accomplished by requiring a well-balanced variety of approach shots.
In addition to it being a famously difficult test of golf, Pine Valley became a gathering point for architects during the golden age of golf design. Visitors to the property to discuss the finer points of their trade included Harry Colt, Charles Blair MacDonald, Walter Travis, William Flynn, Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, A.W. Tillinghast and Perry Maxwell.
Overall the most fascinating aspect has to be the level of difficulty, which remains to this day. From the championship tees the course measures less than 7,000 yards and is sloped at 155 and rated 75.2; some of the highest figures in the world. Pine Valley is a par-70.
Maybe the finished product was exactly what Crump envisioned after all. When he started this healthy undertaking, Crump envisioned Pine Valley as the supreme test for the strong with no concessions for the weak - survival of the fittest; an accurate description, ahead of its time.
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