Mark - I'd been searching the archives as well, before and after I posted -- and couldn't find anything either. Well, actually I rummaged through lots of interesting stuff, like a 1900 article by CB Macdonald on the history of the rules of golf, noting that the rules were based originally on the assumption that golf was being played solely on links courses; and that all the R&A did was to add clarifications over the years (never changing the basic spirit of the rules/games) so that the rules could be more easily be applied to the nature and vagaries of play on non-links courses.
Nothing really to do with your question, but the R&A in 1922 seemed to be re-asserting the "fundamental" nature of links golf. Why though? Why then? Your questions still stand. By the way, I thought "true test" more loaded than "skilled" -- but I can see your point.
Peter
Couldn't find an earlier date for the Troon announcement either, Mark. What did find was a 1921 article that praised Gleneagles VERY highly:
"Last year Gleneagles came into its own and is in constant demand for championships because of the supreme test it provides. The construction of the course was delayed through the Great War, but it was subsequently opened in 1919. Last year the famous Glasgow Herald tournament and both the Scottish professional and amateur championships were played there. This year promises to even surpass that in popularity for title events. Likely to bring Gleneagles still more to the front in the coming season is the great "Thousand Guinea" tournament which will take place there in the week commencing June 6th, when it is hoped that the pick of the players of America, France, Spain, Belgium, Australia, England, Ireland and Scotland will be on hand. The American pros who are going abroad will play in this competition. Gleneagles is admirably suited for such an international contest, and the choice of date—between the British amateur championship at Hoylake commencing onMay 23d, and the British open championship beginning on June 20th at St. Andrews, within easy distance of Gleneagles—is a particularly happy one......Golf at Gleneagles requires all the seaside shots and all the inland ones too. There are holes that remind one of St. Andrews, Troon and Prestwick; others that recall Sunningdale and the best bits of Walton Heath — the two grand English courses—with which Gleneagles will inevitably be compared. In the days to come when this course enjoys the notoriety we prophesy for it, like many other courses in the British Isles, the holes will be known by their names."