Bret, Mary Gammell who owned the original 44.4 acres refused to sell it which is why she leased it to them through 1893. They purchased the 140-acre Rocky Farm site because she told them that she wouldn't renew the lease in 1893. She still wouldn't sell the land regardless of the price.
There purchase of the 140-acre Rocky Farm was fortuitous for originally they only planned on having a 9-hole course regardless of the amount of acres they purchased. Per the Club History, "In 1897 an additional 9-holes were added making Newport an 18-hole course...Havemeyer had not wanted a 2nd 9 holes built, but after his untimely death in 1897, the second nine holes were built."
There certainly was a great deal of unwanted coincidence in the evolution of the club and golf course...
As for Tailer's Ocean links inspiring Newport to build a modern championship golf course, I agree with your assessment and evidently the Club does as well. In 1916, Newport's 2-man green committee, "Hired Seth Raynor to 'go over the course.' According to the minute's of the club's annual meeting, Raynor 'had submitted a tentative plan for the rearrangement and improvement of the course as shown by the plans and profile that were shown at the meeting.' The Green Committee was then 'empowered to employ Mr. Raynor and to request him to submit an estimate of the cost of the improving and rearrangement of the course.'
"But the on-course work was never done [I believe this was due to restrictions in the availability of both materials and labor due to WW I and the Spanish Flu] and, in 1919, NCC Board member T. Suffern Tailer hired Raynor and Macdonald to build nine holes on four nearby parcels of land. By the summer of 1921, Tailer's course, Ocean Links, was completed.
"The minutes of NCC's annual meetings, taken by Harry O. Havemeyer, the club secretary and son of founder Theodore Havemeyer, and frustratingly cursory, but NCC, perhaps spurred by Tailer's quick work on Ocean links, finally began to make decisions.
"The club received a proposal from Raynor for an 18-hole course, but judged his layout to be 'too congested.' A proposal was received from A. W. Tillinghast, then completing his well-received two course construction at Baltusrol, and this plan called for the purchase of additional land. Tillinghast's concept was accepted...
"It is curious that although NCC was looking to expand from its dry, first nine holes (the second nine holes having proved to be a soggy disappointment), and Tailer had just finished a highly praised nine holes across the street, no evidence exists that Tailer had ever offered to sell his new course to the club [on] whose board he still belonged."