According to research I've done for the history of another course, Sam Lyle was the construction superintendent who built the San Francisco Golf Club. He was marreid in July of 1921 and then moved to San Francisco where he constructed the course from the architect's drawings. Lyle worked for the Carter Corporation of New York and London and that's what he did for them; built golf courses. In 1920 he built the Montreal Golf Course and his first position in 1919 was the construction of the Hudson River GC in New York. In 1922 he came to St. Louis and built 45 holes in 90 days for Norwood Hills CC; 36 of the holes remain today. Norwood was an original Wayne Stiles design.
Given these dates, which were outlined in 1955 in the National Greenkeeper Magazine, the 1915 and 1918 dates would tend to be less credible than the 1920 date.
JH