IMO, unless the grass is under traffic stress and everything else that goes with providing a good golf turf over the long haul, your just not going to get a good idea if the grass will hold up or not.
Chances are, there is a golf course with similar conditions that you can visit and get most of the info you need. Test plots for a year prior to construction would mean absolutely nothing to me and could, IMO, lead to some bad decisions.
You need to find a similar turf in a similar climate with similar expectations.
If your going with something brand new that has never been used, then yes, I'd plant it somewhere in a high traffic area and see how it holds up for a couple of years before regrassing everything.
This isn't the old days where supers had to develop their own grasses; almost every large university with any type of turf program has an area with test plots.
Testing chemicals, fertilizers, or different cultural practices on your golf course is a different story and control areas are a good thing. But, I don't see test plots of different grasses being a practical use of resources.