A little background from Wikipedia:
"In the United States, the federal government recognized the importance of accurate topographic maps in a rapidly growing country. In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson established the Survey of the Coast to map the Atlantic coastline as an aid to travel and commerce. In 1836, this organization was renamed the U.S. Coast Survey, and in 1878 the name changed to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. In the meantime, mapping of the interior of the country fell to a variety of individuals and organizations, including the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-1806, who mapped their route from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Northwest. During the period from 1838 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers made major contributions in mapping the western United States, including a detailed map published in 1848 based on John Fremont's explorations. By the 1870s, so many different groups were conducting surveys that their work began to overlap. To consolidate this effort, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was established in 1879.
Most of the early map making was done by laborious field surveys. Starting in the 1930s, the USGS began using aerial photography techniques to produce and update maps. In the 1980s the use of computers to scan and redraw existing maps significantly reduced the time required to update maps in areas of rapid growth."
It would therefore follow that topographic surveying as an established practice pre-dated golf course architecture in the U. S.
Mike