Frankly, in my opinion, there's probably an extremely interesting book waiting to be written on another aspect of C.B. Macdonald's life in golf in America, and I've suggested a number of times that George Bahto should consider writing it.
It seems to me there's not much question that Macdonald can definitely be seen as not just the "Father of American Architeture" but as the man who almost singly tried to transport so many of the things about golf that it'd for so long been to this country from Scotland---primarily that thing he called the "spirit" (of St. Andrews). It was not by a long shot just the idea of consistently good golf architecture that he brought here by being the first to see the benefits in copying and mimicing the architectural concepts of age old proven European golf holes.
There's so much more to what he was doing or trying to do in those very early days, in my opinion. Being one of the few founders of the USGA is significant and his roles in that organization and his voluminous writing about the things that were going on during that approximately 30 year time are frankly fascinating if one would simply track and analyze them properly. His strong positions on both the overall concept of how the rules of golf were to be transported and interpreted by the USGA as well as the direction of the new American golf organization (USGA) is really significant, in my opinion.
I believe the key to it all is what it appears he went through in those decades and ultimately what it did to him, which few, it seems to me, have heretofore explained, acknowledged or perhaps even understood.
There's little question in my mind that many of these things upset him, eventually depressed him, and perhaps in a massive way, and caused him to virtually withdraw from golf beginning around 1921! This is not speculation as I have letters between Wynant Vanderpool and Hugh Wilson mentioning that he said as much.
The interesting question about Macdonald would be to find out why. It looks to me like it was a lot more than simply the oft stated fact that he had a large ego. Analyzing this 30 year evolution in the USGA particularly and Macdonald's part in it---from rules (an area he was initially extremely significant in), to the organizations management, the question of it future membership and how it conducted it's business could probably show a great deal about how American golf got to be the way it did and has.
I don't think it's that accurate to simply say Macdonald was an out and out curmudgeon with an over arching ego that caused him to probably ultimately withdraw from golf outside NGLA for almost the last 20 years of his life. He may have been that to some extent but if one pays close attention to the tenor of his voluminous letters on USGA issues (and this from a man on the inside of the organization) one can't help miss a certain resignation (and not necessarily a continuously battling one).
Macdonald seemed to sense early on (the less than confrontational tenor of his USGA writng) that he was not going to successfully fight "City Hall" (strong opinions of various controlling board members within the USGA that ran counter to his). It's also interesting that he never became the President of the USGA---as he certainly was a logical choice with all that he was and had been. It also seems if he'd been willing they may have offered it to him--at least early on!
It also seems evident to me from all this, that although those in power in golf beginning around 1920 still had real respect for Macdonald in many ways they didn't have much desire to try to approach him!
It looks like he just withdrew from most all things golf and back into NGLA for perhaps the last 15-20 years of his life. If that had never happened would golf be different today? I think it probably would have, but by how much is the interesting question.
In the beginning and potentially C.B Macdonald could've been a whole lot more than just what he's now known to be---the "Father of American Golf Architecture".