Tom and David,
Evidently you've given up on the "no massive public monies flowed into public golf because of and/or during the Depression until the WPA" argument, given the weight of evidence.
I selected the Depression as a delimiter for sound historical reasons that you continue to ignore. It was simply the logical cut-off point when massive amounts of monies were used for public works programs, either in response to the Depression, or simply coincidentally concurrent with it, but many of these were also fed by it. For instance, Robert Moses's NYC Parks Initiative actually began shortly before the Great Depression, but became an effort that synergistically and somewhat ironically was fueled by the Depression, and the mass availability of cheap labor. John Van Kleek's work for Moses on all of the NYC courses began right around that time, in 1929 or so.
Further, as we saw above, Roosevelt didn't initiate the big public works programs that were a response to the Depression. By early 1931, President Hoover was already cranking up the Public Works machine in an effort to stem the flood of joblessness. Roosevelt only formalized it and built new structures (and named them) around it. Many of these monies flowed to municipalities and were used to beautify towns, create parks, build bridges, and yes, create and update public golf courses.
So it was with an understanding of history that I made my claim, and yes, given the list you've been able to produce of pre-1930 courses I still feel very confident in my original statement.
In fact, my confidence is bolstered daily by you both continuing to fight so hard to add both courses built between 1930-36, as well as the ridiculous insistence that a millionaire-colony created around golf for the yachting set at places like Pasadena and Gulf Hills were "public courses". That tells me you can't counter what I actually said effectively, so you have to pretend that I meant something other than what I said.
That's ok...I'm done with the post-Depression course discussion. The fact that I've proven that Sharp Park was only actually built because of the spring 1931 approval of over eight million dolllars in public works monies is a case study that makes my point. As always, I'm happy to discuss and debate any courses relevant to my original contention...those that opened prior to the Depression.
As far as Cobb's Creek. It opened at 6,172 yards in 1916 to a par of 71. Just over 200 yards of new tees were added just prior to the 1928 US Public Links.
In that tournament, the Medal score was 152, and only 8 players in the field of 134 broke 160.
Although the course hosted the best local pros and amateurs at various exhibitions, tournaments, and daily play, including two US Women's Amateur champions and top national amateurs like Woody Platt and Max Marston, par 71 was never matched by anyone through the 1920s. There was a reason it was "famed".
And Tom...Harding Park was in my Top 10 of public courses built before 1930 and I feel confident it was. I do have to ask, though, as I've not played there. How much of Harding's reputation do you think is based on the architecture, and how much of it is based on what my friend Bill Vostinak terms the "California Effect", where the look of the wind-blow cypress trees, the fog, the proximity to water, etc., all create a bit of a dreamlike setting, that is even evident in your old b&w photos?