If the original Lido still existed and was in good shape, where do you think it would be ranked in the World list?Was it regarded as better than NGLA?
Obviously almost impossible to answer accurately as there is no one who played it or even saw it who is still alive. That being said...on the one hand I might say that it would not be in the Top 10 World since it was manufactured and based on courses built since, it is very hard to manufacture something as great as what natural forms (e.g. Sandhills) provide. But there are exceptions to that...best probably being NGLA which was heavily "manufactured" (or at least miles from Sandhills in terms of "naturalness"), and another very different form of manufacturing would be the greens at Winged Foot, which clearly are not natural and may well be the be set of 36 greens in one location in the USA (and maybe second only to Royal Melbourne worldwide).
Additionally, given what CBM and Raynor were able to accomplish at NGLA, I think it is safe to assume that they got both the big picture and detail items done right at Lido and may well have pulled a "one-up" on the brilliant randomness of nature. Plus I would guess that their experience at NGLA would give them a big leg-up in this process. So net net, I would guess that it would today be a top 5-ish or even top 3-ish.
As I recall the likes of Darwin and Harmon called it the greatest ever (which of course means better than NGLA). But even so, its greatness today would be a very much a function of how well it matured and whether the club would have provided the right oversight. One could also guess that it was too close to the crowds of NYC to remain as great as it first was. Think of how many great tracks were forced further out to survive (e.g. Fresh Meadow). One could also guess that having both Lido and NGLA near each other (about 75 miles apart) might have split their followings in two. No question a course can be great when first built and then devolve into something much less
Obviously this is 110% speculation and none of us know...which makes the question even better.