Tom
I'm no expert but I have now seen enough old newspaper copy to last a life time. Round about the turn of the century most of the regional papers at least didn't have the technology to include photos, so they would include a sketch of the photo if that makes sense. The reason I know this is that they would often state that the sketch was from a photo. In this regard I have also seen course layouts, which are clearly a skecth of a plan like the ones Joe posts and the ones Ed kindly posted for me. Again on occasion I have seen newspaper crediting the person who prepared the plan from which the sketch was taken from.
So I'm guessing that the newspaper had inhouse sketch artists who would quickly knock up a representation of a plan or photo or whatever was required.
The question is how did the plans come about in the first place, were they plans prepared pre-construction or done after the event ? I've no doubt that there would be a bit of both but strongly suspect that in most cases it would be the latter, the plans were made after the course was built which is why you have to be very careful crediting some unknown on the basis of his name being on the bottom of a plan, particularly if that person happened to be a surveyor or engineer, the type of person who would be commisioned to prepare a plan. Again, I say that because I have seen reference to plans being prepared after the event.
The next question is why were the plans prepared in the first place and the answer to that I think is to satisfy peoples interest and as a crude form of advertising.
Niall