The San Rafael Golf Club was not associated with the hotel from what I could tell they just had privileges. The course was 9 holes in 1898 and then they quickly added another nine. The "greens" were sand and about 60 feet in circumference with the home green being closer to 120!. It was one of the big four in the Bay area playing against the SFGC, Oakland Golf Club, and Burlingame. It was one of the first courses to have 18 holes in NorCal.
It would later move to another site 1905-1909 and take on the name of Marin Golf and Country Club, the clubhouse is still there. Robert Hunter shot a 67 over the course in the early 1920's. The formation of Meadow Club stems from the fact that MGCC only had 9 holes and some wanted 18. It was in a pretty neat area still called the "Country Club." I have a lot of research to do for this time frame and have been looking forward to it.
I recently did a indexing of all the trophies at Meadow Club and went into the Ladies locker room to look at the their trophies. To my surprise, they had a trophy from San Rafael Golf Club! It has some pretty amazing font and just was a true beauty to behold. If there is one thing that I have found out about during my research is the amazing fonts and drawings found in some of the older magazines.
Cornish and Whitten are a good start, but as you may have noted as well, an updated edition would be quite a treat. I have a handful of courses to add and changes to make.
George Smith was the pro there for a period and made a name for himself within weeks of taking his job, but not on the course. He made a hissing noise at what he felt was a little too nationalistic sentiment during a play and made such a scene that he and his party left before things turned ugly. There was a big write up in the paper. The funny things that you find when doing research.
The Hotel burned down in 1928.
Tully