From Our Ows Connesroxorn, San Francisco, July 20.
That a stupendous sum of money invested in the United States in golf is at once apparent to. any man who moves about the country, ut no one would believe that it reaches the enormous total of '$2,500,000,000. This figure, how-fever, seems to be near it, according reliable as can is to be a dollar a day and locker charges vary from $5 to $9 for the season, and with such charges a conservative estimate of yield i 4 minimum of $17,500 net after li costs of upkeep have' been met. Armour's get 43 per cent. interest for their money, the balance of the $17,500 made on the course, after Payment of interest, being applied fon reduction of the principal, course, no me arriving at a definite figure, for many different methods and condi-tiens exist under which tay what the total investment which has made their existence possible represents in actual money value, In some cases land is donated by wealthy men, in others comparatively worthless land is transformed into a course, in others costly land is purchased or leased for a term of years.
The Lido Club, for instance at Long Beach, N.Y. an artificial course in whose "construction tens of thousands of tons of sand were pumped from the ocean's bed, and more tons of rock and gravel' and dirt for the surface were hauled from inland, is said to have cost '$400,000 to build—not including the lund' nor the club house and forth, Then the Lakeville Country Club outside of Great Neck, Long Inland, regarded as one of the finest aid out clubs in the world, cost, is reported, a million and a half Aollars, $300,000 "of which went into the construction costs of the course, But these, like the Kiangwan Course (which did not, of course, cost a tithe of these figures) are the exception, There are many clubs and public and semi-public courses where costs did not exceed $10,000, und of the roughly 3,500 clubs in the country a great number would come within that category. About 40 per cent. of the clubs in the United States have 18 hole courses, but some of them have four or five rtretehes of this kind.
Judging by the noise that the golfing public makes in this country over the game, one would te inclined to believe" that -more Americans played the Scottish kame. I was surprised to see that the average membership of a club about 250 or 260. This would mean that there are anywhere from 750,000 to a million golf club members, not including women or Junor members, which would bring the total golf players in the United States to roundabout a million and a half, or just over one per cent. of the total popul 5" how ver, is. a summary of club membership. In addition, there are 150 public golf courses, Chicago leading with ight. With these public courses added, it is probable that there ave about 2,000,000 people in hin country who follow golf as a pastime more or less regularly, inaneing New Courses In view of the fact that at Shang hai, Calcutta' and other large Asiatic cities there has arisen of 18 a problem in the matter courses, it may be interest ing to set forth'a novel method of financing which is des in the current issue of the "American Golfer," by the Superintendent Farks" of Minneapolis. Though that city has only 425,000 popula tion, it possesses to-day three 18- Vole course and twu more under construction. These have proved so successful from a financial. standpoint, on the basis of a small green ce, that the city has been able to secure both lands and construction Sands from landowners under contracts by which the cost of the land und improvements is to be paid ever a period of 20 years out of the net revenue of the courses, For example, for one course now being constructed the land was obtained for '$1,000 an acre from 'Armour & Company; who will pay the construction cost of the course 1p, ta, $55,000. The total cost land' and completed course, to' be operated exclusively by the city, wil be $209,300. The green fee Such terms it need hardly be pointed out, could not have been obtained had the city not already Proved that golf is self-supporting. Though the land for the frst two n existing parks and cost nothing, their construction cost taken from park funds and is now being replaced by receipts over and above their maintenance and operation costs, while at the same time up-to-date club houses and locker rooms costing $15,000 have been built out of the toss receipts. It isa fine plan, could very well be made to apply in cities in the Far East.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.