Mark,
I would wager that most old courses have had a lot of drainage added. As a kid, I remember so many courses with long damp swales, and back then it was just accepted that a course took a few years, or more, to grow in. No one accepts that now, it needs to be dry from day one. Water goes from sheet flow to concentrated flow, i.e., gullies (as you know) in from 90 to no more than 250 feet, depending on grade and soil. While it seems excessive to put a catch basin even every 250 feet, sometimes it must be done. Sodding or netting the swales can help the initial erosion and reduce the need for pipes primarily for the initial grow in.
As to whether you can move water with more grading and fewer catch basins, I have said this before, but.....
In bridge engineering, there is a general rule that the cost of the spans ought to be nearly equal to the cost of the piers. When I grade and drain golf courses, I kind of check to see if the drainage schedule estimate is similar to the grading estimate. If you imagine a flat site, its nearly impossible to drain with only earthmoving. For 2%, even a 50 yard wide fw would need to be elevated on one side by a 3 feet, and would block water uphill. Even if not, raising that fw an average of 1.5 feet probably costs more than balancing cut and fill at 1.5 ft up and down, and adding pipe. And, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out the lowest cost way of doing it.