Mark,
Here is what Jim Finegan had to say in his great work on the 100 year history of golf in Philadelphia regarding the first layout at Lancaster CC:
John Reid—very probably the same Scot who had established his reputation first at Huntingdon Valley, then at Atlantic City—was brought in to lay out a short (2,400 yards) nine-hole course. He was paid $28. The land, perfectly flat, was partly maintained by permitting cows to graze on it. The greens, of coarse pasture grass, were about 15 feet in diameter and were mowed twice a week. There were no sand bunkers—only a few mounds called "chocolate drops" to function as hazards near some of the greens. The first tee, next to a clay tennis court, required a drive over Fordney's four-rail wooden fence. The longest hole was 363 yards; the shortest, 162 yards. Edward T. O'Donnell, son of the Rossmere Hotel's manager, served as the club's greenkeeper and golf instructor, at $25 a month, with another $25 in lesson fees guaranteed by the club.
Regarding the original course at Huntingdon Valley:
The Huntingdon Valley Country Club was founded in 1897 and a nine-hole course laid out at Rydal by a Scottish professional named John Reid. Mr. Madeira remembers the first hole: ". . . . The green was located between the Valley Road and the railroad ... a small leveled-off space, about 20 feet in diameter, and the player was supposed to carry the creek on his second shot, and probably on the third clear the row of trees along the Valley Road and land on this little dinner plate of a green. This made a hole of such difficulty that it was impractical. . . ."
Within two years the club, whose membership had grown rapidly and whose board of governors was liberally sprinkled with well-known Philadelphia names (Lippincott, Elkins, Sinkler, Stoddart, Wanamaker, Widener, Madeira), acquired adjacent property. The Noble Mansion, on Old York Road, became the clubhouse (ample accommodations for servants, plus excellent stabling arrangements), and an additional nine holes were laid out. The result was one of the longest (6,326 yards, par 77) and most challenging 18-hole courses in the country, all of it over land that ranged from rolling to hilly. The outbound half—one suspects that this must have been the new nine—measured 3,464 yards against a par of 40. Holes 2, 3, and 4 (414 yards, 394,396) were all rated 4 1/2s. And the next three holes consisted of a par 5 (485 yards), a 5 1/2 (528 yards), and another 5 (490 yards). No wonder the club was soon to develop a number of the ablest players in the district, all of whom felt that, in contrast to their home courses, other courses were a snap.
William Flynn redesigned the 18th hole at the Noble course after someone drove the green. This was an exceptional design and clearly influenced the awarding of the commission for the new course (opened in 1927) that exists today.
It is mentioned in the exhibition catalogue of the Arthur W. Schultz collection of golf books at Univ. of Chicago (Mr. Schultz is currently writing a book on Albert Lasker and has been instrumental in obtaining research material on Mill Road Farm) that Reid was involved in laying out St. Andrews GC in NY:
Golf in America has been traced back as far as 1650, when Dutch residents of New York were recorded as playing colf; and 1743, when a consignment of 96 golf clubs and 432 balls was shipped from Leith, Scotland, to Charleston, South Carolina. There is general agreement, however, that the first permanent American golf association, the St. Andrew's Golf Club, was formed in Yonkers, New York, in 1888, by Scottish-born John Reid and his friends.
Regarding the BERKSHIRE CC-The Berkshire Country Club owes its inception to 'Alexander F. Smith, John J. Kittz. and a few other gentlemen, who in 1897 obtained some golf clubs and balls, and essayed to play "the royal game of golf" on a six-hole course which John Reid, a professional golfer from Atlantic City, laid out on grounds at Carsonia, where the present park is located. The Club was formally incorporated on May 10, 1899, by Wilson Ferguson, William Kerper Stevens, Herbert R. Green, F. C. Smink, George F. Baer, G. Howard Bright, M. Brayton McKnight, J. Lancaster Repplier, John M. Archer, William Seyfert and E. L. Parvin.
Owing to numerous streams and marshes, it was found that the grounds at Carsonia were ill adapted for the purposes of a country club, and in 1899 arrangements were made with the Reading Suburban Real Estate Company to occupy vacant land surrounding the suburban town of Wyomissing, where a nine-hole course, 2,159 yards in length, was laid out by Alexander F. Smith (architect), and where the Club flourished until the end of 1902. The house built by John B. Mull along the Wyomissing boulevard was occupied as a clubhouse.
In May, 1902, the Club purchased from George F. Baer sixty acres of farming land, situated in Bern township, near Reading, between the Schuylkill river, (just north of Hain's Looks) and the Bern 'ville road. A nine-hole golf course, 3,090 yards long, abounding in interesting features, was laid out by John Reid, as well as five tennis courts.
Regarding Atlantic City CC from Golf on the Atlantic Shore of New Jersey by Bob Weisgerber:
This is a very interesting place, located by the bay with sand dunes on seven holes. Over 100 years old, it was established in 1897. It was laid out by John Reid, construction was overseen by Willie Park, Jr., and the firm of Toomey and Flynn from Philadelphia. Later alterations were made by the Fraser family. Leo Fraser was a former president of the PGA. The clubhouse is like a museum, and lore has it that the term "birdie" originated here.
Atlantic City Country Club has been the site of the U.S. Amateur (1901), the U.S. Women's Open (1948, 65, 75), the U.S. Senior Women's Open (1967), the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur (1997), and the PGA Senior International (1980).
Reid seemed to be influencial in the early spread of golf in NY, PA, and NJ. He is not profiled in the Architects of Golf but is referred to in the back of the book's list of courses.