Joe,
I agree...I think it's important to read the context of what Findlay is discussing..
I am not yet prepared to talk about the possibilities of this new place because it is really just growing, and Fred Pickering, the coursemaker, will give it the finishing touches in the late fall.
It will then be time to reveal to the world its features, etc. Wilson has just returned from a trip abroad. He visited all the leading courses, gathering what data he could anent the making of good golf holes. I advised him, preparatory to his trip to Scotland, to watch carefully the seventeenth, or Alps hole, at Prestwick, which he really imagined existed on his new course. He is now convinced that it will take a lot of making to equal that famous old spot. But many of the others, as laid out by Charles B. McDonald, are really great. Wilson became quite fond of Prestwick, Troon, Formby, Hoylake, Sandwich, Deal and Princes, but was sadly disappointed in St. Andrew, which, in reality, is a myth...
Besides, if Macdonald had already done the layout, what would be the need for Wilson to go through all of this trouble, why would Findlay write this glowing article about a "construction foreman" (when it's clear that was Pickering's job), and why would Findlay write that Wilson himself, "...now possesses golf knowledge that will stand him in good stead for many years to come. Wilson made a study of the topography of the whole golfing country, such as H.G. Leeds did before he built our greatest American golf course, Myopia near Boston, and C.B. McDonald and his national course, at Shinnecock Hills, L.I..."
I also find it very interesting that the Opening Day article clearly confirms that Wilson and Committee "mapped out", the course, which clearly means routing and not just construction.
I will shortly post one other document that makes clear that Wilson and committee both Laid out (planned) and Constructed the course.