Ben Crenshaw Serves As Simple Top-Dressing!?
Matt Ginella, obviously never having actually seen Ben Crenshaw in action during construction of a Coore-Crenshaw design, or having considered that Bill Coore would not be getting the design jobs he's getting today if it weren't for Crenshaw, nonetheless, I still can't fathom the reason for the reference to Crenshaw expressed on Morning Drive today when talking about the upcoming Cabot Links project:
Coore confirmed that although his design partner, Ben Crenshaw, always said he never wanted to work on courses outside of the U.S., that in this particular case, given the property and the upside of the project, that he will be involved. To what degree, Coore can’t say, but Crenshaw has always simply served as top-dressing to their finished products, which includes the recent restoration of Pinehurst No. 2, Keiser’s Bandon Trails and Bandon’s new par 3 course, Bandon Preserve.
It is amazing to me that the one "celebrity" architect who has actually had an impact is increasingly downplayed in the role he plays for making the most success design team thrive these days.
Geoff
**I heard from Ken Bakst, 1997 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and developer of what I believe to be Coore and Crenshaw's most complete design, Friars Head.
Here's what he had to say about Ben as "top-dressing":
Crenshaw has always simply served as top-dressing to their finished products? If I am correct that Matt Ginella means window dressing and is just trying to be funny with the golf reference, because I only know top-dressing to mean the application of a sand/soil mixture over a grass surface, nothing could be further from the truth from my perspective. Yes, it’s true that Bill spends far more time on site than does Ben, but to say that Ben is just window dressing is completely inaccurate and unfair. Ben has an incredible eye, and his involvement at Friar’s Head was and continues to be invaluable and there are holes and features that wouldn’t be as they are today without Ben’s input.
Reader Comments (20)
Holly is way better and great to look at, but Gary Williams is forced to carry the discussion to the point of exhaustion. Ginella is more of a know it all than Kuselias making it all but impossible to watch. Hack has added nothing.
Where does Golf Channel find these goons? Oh right, he's from Golf Digest. Sorry Geoff.
I don't know who this Ginella is, but this statement of hers is probably the worst comment on modern golf architecture I have read in years and that includes stuff I hear on atlas.
MD really is worse, by far, from EK's days, and while ,imo Hack is ok, because he adds some stability to the proceedings, and he is a positive, entertaining presence, the 3rd person, unless it is Chamblee, or Foltz is usually a boat anchor. Bald space man who name drops everyone including the valet who parked Rory's car revently hit a new low by trying to plsy the guitar on camra- hint: if you don't know a song, do't try to learn it on national TV. Even more grating than that is he calls everyone who is under 40 ''the kid'' or ''that kid'', and
I find it insulting. Dammit, if you cite he name of someone's MIL, who made coffee before their finsl round, and other such BSW, then say the name of the 20 something player who just won. He is not ''the kid''.
Anyway back to Crenshaw- I'll be appy to stop by his office next week when I am in Austin, and try and get a reaction from Ben, if he is in, and if I have the time.
As a matter of fact, one of the few good things about TGC is Holly Sonders. They should get rid of all the "eye candy" but I guess that would not be PC.
Bring back Peter Kessler.
One is a low handicap golfer and the other is on Morning Drive.
Their gig is so good, that there is hardly ever a course with they get comped (all of them) that they don't like. Also, beyond all the icing they get to lick off in their jobs, there is almost no good foundation of golf knowledge.
Ginella's comments regarding Crenshaw are as wayward as Passov's praise of Martin Hawtree and his debasing of The Old Course.