There are some excellent suggestions here, for which many thanks. I see this as an academic resource, something for serious scholarship. Ideally it would be a huge database of information, not a physical collection of documents. Quite what is finally contained in it is up for negotiation and in the first instance would be simply a compilation of courses and architects, but, of course, there would be room for expansion to include architects' drawings, route plans, course cards and other non-architectural historical information. Everything needs to be credited, input to the site and modification of entries need strict editorial control and the venture has to be properly funded to maintain an adequate permanent staff and to pay for that material which has been researched by others. That is why I think it would be good to have this venture linked to or associated with an academic centre such as a first-division university as well as USGA, R&A, Tufts etc.
Obviously North America has more courses than the rest of the world combined and there's a far greater interest in architecture there, so it's natural home is somewhere in the USA or Canada, but being computerised is easily accessed from anywhere in the world. And we will need input from all corners of the golfing globe.
I do hope it comes off.