"Frank,
Good points all. In the irrigation point, though, George Bahto's book describes how an irrigation salesman came out to NLGA quickly after construction started. Thus, golf irrigation may have evolved from other irrigation. Thus, it may not be radical as much as evolution."
JeffB:
Although NGLA may've had some sophisticated irrigation for its time are you aware of the extent of agronomic problems that course had in its first few years?
It wasn't a matter of lack of irrigation at all that produced the massive agronomic failures there---it was the totally inexact science of seed at that time (seed merchants put every kind of seed imaginable together in what they sold Macdonald on the theory that something was bound to grow!
) and the fact that Macdonald apparently did not understand well enough that you can't grow grass on basically straight sand. Actually, as NGLA and then PVGC found out a few years later you can grow grass on straight sand but you can't grow it very long!
Those early guys did not understand very well that the second necessary part to irrigation in growing (and sustaining) grass was you had to have a growing medium for both nutrients and water retention. Macdonald got a few catches of grass at NGLA in the beginning but it didn't take long for that grass to just burn right up as the irrigation drained straight down to China probably by the end of the day
That's when Macdonald got in touch with Piper and Oakley of the US Dept. of Agriculture. They were basically forage experts and botanists and they sure did know how to make things grow although they'd never thought about golf agronomy before.
At that point NGLA dumped thousands of tons of manure all over the golf course as did PVGC and everything sure did grow---all kind of things including weeds and worms and everything else imaginable making both courses a bloody mess early on.
At that point they all got into real experimentation with grass strains and exactly how to apply the proper growing and water retention medium during construction, bents were perfected and within ten or so years they all started the USGA green section with what they'd learned together. As far as an acceptable putting surface was concerned a truly interesting jack-of-all-trades by the name of Frederic Winslow Taylor of Philadelphia managed to make a real breakthrough with a green construction method that was basically the precusor (in the teens) to the present USGA spec green construction method!