Tom,
Again, not a thing against rich people, who I'm quite sure were able to easily pay the $3 or $4 per round freight at Montauk.
By contrast, many of the courses I'm calling "public" were either free, or had a locker fee of $1 for the year, or some such thing, but they were meant to be the golf courses for all of the public, not just the upper crust. There is no way the average guy could afford to play courses like Montauk, Cleveland Heights, Pasadena, Salisbury, and other exclusive vacation communities built for the wealthy that you're calling public courses.
I just think you need to be consistent in your comparison, and since theoretically, if as an average American-working guy in 1927 I could somehow manage to motor or yacht out to the Hamptons and over to Montauk, I could then afford a day or two's pay to play, I wouldn't need to stay at the hotel, and could theoretically sleep on my yacht (or the beach) yet walk up and play, so it's not a resort course. I think you should add it.