Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-12-08
GOLF Is ALL THE RAGE.
VAST SUMS EXPENDED BY THE VO-
TARlES OF THE GAME.

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Adopted as One of Our National Sports
Over 125,oOO Players Out on the
Links This Year.
That golf is widespread this season
is apparent on every side. The vaca-
ton traveller, whether on steamer or
rail, is confronted by sun-browned
men laden down with caddie bags
heavy with golf clubs, evidently
adopts in the game, or else by men,
matrons, boys or young women who
carry modestly, but with evidently re-
spect, two or three golf clubs tied to-
gether with cord. In the city streets,
too, the sight of a club-laden golfer
in cap and "knickers," hurrying to or
from a links, attracts no more COM
ment than passing wheelman, This
is as true of San Francisco, Chicago,
Boston, Philadelphia or st. Louis as
it is of Greater New York. 1t proves
that golf has been adopted as one of
our national sports. One reason why
the fact bumps itself on the attention
is that, according to a shopkeeper up
town, golf clubs are the only things
the average man will carry home from
the stores in the way of bundle.
According to the latest statement by
Robert Bage Kerr, the Secretary of
the United States Golf Association,
there are now enrolled nineteen ASSOC
ciate and 100 allied clubs. There are
three times as many unattached clubs,
so that by careful estimate there
must this season be over 500 flourish
i,rr al, he fo+0
players among them will expend fully
$40, 900, 900 this year on their sport.
The individual players will exceed
125, 900 in number.
One aspect of the growth of golf in
this country is unique. The game
had national organization to rule it
before it was more than local sport.
This state of affairs was due to con-
fict between two of the five leading
clubs then in existence over the anna
teur championship of 1894. Through |
a Misunderstanding tournam ents were
held, each dignifed by the name of |
the champions hip meeting" at the
! Newport Country Club and at the st.
Andrews Golf Club. To avoid such |
conflicts in the future it was thought |
best to establish some sort of mutual
understanding among the different
clubs. The result was meeting at |
the Calumet Club on December %,
1894. At the gathering the United
States Golf Association was created,
with I. A. Havemeyer as President. |
There was an office, too, for each of |
the others who attended. At the adj
journment, to sum up, there was a ma
tional organization in existence with |
fully equipped corps of commanding
officers, but with hardly single pri-
Nate eol a;~- IN sight. Subsequent |
events have fully proven the wisdom
and foresight of the clubs IN starting
the U. S. g. A.
The annual dues this year received
! by the U. 5. G. A. from its members
have been about $4,000. Some sixty
private courses, on such estates as
John J. Astor's, at Rhinebeck; DR..
w. Seward Webb's, on Lake Cham.
plain, and George Vanderbilt's, at
Blltmore, with many smaller links.
are not included in the U. S. G. A.
count. The unattached clubs, North,
South, East and West. number about
400. Two classes of unattached golf
clubs, however, are very apt to stay
forever outside the lines. One is the
summer or winter resort hotel golf
club, which was naturally but an
ephemeral existence. The other class
is the college golf club, which finds it's
guidance in the Intercollegiate Golf
Association. There are, however,
golf clubs at Amherst, MICHIGAN Uni
versity, Swarthmore and some twenty
other institutions that are independent
of either union, and this is the case.
too, with the golf clubs of Vassar.
Bryn Mawr, Smith, Wellesley and
the other colleges and schools for
women.
In obtaining the estimate of the
number of persons that are playing
golf this year each sort of club must
be considered. The most exact calcu-
lations may be made, of course, re-
garding the clubs in the u. S. G.. A.
Viewed in detail, fair estimate of the
average membership of the allied
clubs is 800, giving total for this di-
vision of the U. S. G. A. of $4,000
members. The players of the unat-
tached clubs include the visitors to
the Florida, California and Southern
and Northern mountain and seaside
links, whose name is legion, besides
the collegians and schoolboys. The
400 clubs will represent fully 80, 900
players. The total, then, of the golf
ers now in the game would be 1875, $50
for 519 clubs. American Golf, on a
basis of 619 clubs, estimates the num-
Der of members at 122, 200. That
journal estimates, too, that the aggre-
gate expenditures of this body of
players is not less than SIS, 900, 900.
To support this assertion Golf prints
this schedule to show that the average
annual expenses of each of these
players is not less than 1925.
Club dues. ........... ...... 1890
Clubs, bags, etc.,. ............. 1900
Golf balls. 49,. 80 .. - ZOO
Caddie fees. . ................. 500
special COLT clothing, boots, ETC.. 5000
| IncidentalS. including traysiin1 IN