Mac, as far as the "money getting" part, while doing research for my Crooked Stick book, I found this on how Bobby Jones did it with Peachtree in the March 5, 1951 issue of Life magazine:
"The Peachtree course in Atlanta, Ga. is the brainchild of golfing’s great Bobby Jones…
Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., who quit competitive golf in 1930 when he won the “grand slam” – the British Open, the British Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur – always wanted a championship course for his home town, Atlanta. In 1945, with two golfing friends and a golf course architect named Robert Trent Jones, he selected a 230-acre tract of land. Architect Jones drew up a plan for the proposed course. Then golfer Jones entertained 20 wealthy Atlantans, showed them the plan and asked them to buy a share of stock – at $3,000 a share. He sold 20 shares right away, then another 50. It took nearly three years and $500,000 to finish Peachtree and its clubhouse."
By the way, Jones' approach is roughly what Pete Dye did in 1964. His goal was 100 investors at $6000 each. He didn;t quite get there, but somehow Pete convinced a lot of people to go along with him. Not bad for a former insurance salesman with only a handful of course to his credit at the time.
You can read some excerpts about how Pete financed and built Crooked Stick at:
www.crookedstickbook.com