Steve:
This is a very interesting question and mostly, in my opinion, as it relates to the Rules of Golf and when "relief" from "casual water" may have come into being in golf's Rules!
Clearly, something like this could have been used in an architectural context before "relief" from "casual water" came into being in the rules but somehow I doubt it ever was.
I was reading in some older writing (Hunter's "The Links") recently some of the unusual shots some of the older good golfers had and there was mention of their abilities in playing shots out of water and such and soggy areas (casual water?).
But I don't believe that architects EVER intentionally tried to encourage or certainly design wet and soggy areas that could be considered what we call "casual water" and from which relief is now granted in the rules.
Such things were simply an inconvience to play but there was never anything like the "relief" from them that we have today and have in the Rules of Golf today.
Long ago there were two overriding themes in all of golf that those players always adhered to and actually came to be called "The Two Great Principles"!
They were (or are);
1. You play the course as you find it.
2. Put your ball in play at the start of the hole, play only your own ball and do not touch it until you lift it from the hole.
This obviously included what we call "casual water" and which they did not take relief from!
As an addendum, the prinicple that a golfer did not touch his ball until he removed it from the hole had some other interesting applications in golf!
The stymie, for instance, was not something that was ever "invented" in golf! It was simply another example of the evolutionary RESULT and occasional HAPPENSTANCE of that same principle that you could not touch your ball!!
Back then, "laying your opponent a stymie" was not considered a sportsman like thing to do!! It just happened (and the stymie itself resulted from the fact the player just could not touch his ball to effect "relief" for his opponent!)