Not sure where you get your information Mike, or how you interpret it, but that doesn't sound much like NGLA to me. At least not with the spin you put on it.
Here is what CBM said about how the land was purchased at NGLA, on page 158 of Scotland's Gift (emphasis added):
However, there happened to be some 450 acres of land on Sebonac Neck, having a mile of frontage on Peconic bay and laying between Cold Spring Harbor and Bull's Head Bay. This property was little known and had never been surveyed. Every one thought it more or less worthless. It abounded with bogs and swapms and was covered with an entanglement of bayberr, huckeberry, blackberry and other bushes andwas infested by insects. The only way one could get ofver the gournd was on ponies. So Jim Whigham and myself spent two or three days riding over it, studying the contours of the ground. Finally we determined what it was we wanted, providing we could get it reasonably. It joined Shinnecock Hills Golf Course. The company agreed to sell us 205 acres, and we were permitted to locate it as to best serve our purpose. Again, we studied the contours earnestly; selecting those that would fit in naturally with the various classical holes I had in mind, after which we staked out the land we wanted.
We found an Alps; found an ideal Redan; then we discovered a place we could put the Eden hole which would not permit a topped ball to run-up on the green. Then we found a wonderful water-hole, now the Cape. . . .
According to CBM, they chose the land they wanted for the course out of a much larger parcel. The chose the locations of the holes FIRST, then staked out what they wanted to purchase, based on this plan. There was nothing arbitrary about the land used for the course or for even for the original 200 acre purchase, for that matter.
Now that sounds familiar.
I don't know where you got that above, but it surely wasn't from CB Macdonald.
What, exactly was your source?