I've heard other stories, too, about tee shots travelling in excess of 280 yards in the Haskell days, prior to fairway irrigation. An older member of my home club said they used to hit tee shots at the par 4 11th, which featured an excessively wide fairway in the days prior to comprehensive fairway irrigation, pick up there bags, start walking, look up and their golf balls would still be bounding down the fairway!
It seems that one the principle differences in the game, relative to comparing long driving in those days and the (excessively) long driving of today's top players, is that because the fairways were more consistently firm and ran fast, Jones and his contemporaries really had to consider what "The Bounding Billy" was going to do when it met with the ground. They'd curve the ball, or send on very specific lines in order to ensure they missed bunkers and placed themselves in advantages positions from which to approach the day's hole location - because the same was true on approach to the greens. They really had to take the influence of the ground into consideration.
Those same, drier conditions that force golfers to be shotmakers are rarely in effect these days. The top players hit high shots off the tee that don't really move much once they met with the softer fairways. And high shots into the greens that tend to stop rather abruptly, in comparison. And thus, the challenge is much less stern in this regard.
I contend that more consistently firm and fast-running conditions would negate (at least in part) the negative effects a longer ball will have on existing golf courses. When they sincerely have to take into account what the ball is going to do when it meets with the turf, golfers will have to be more thoughtfull, and in many instances, "throttle back" off the tee.