The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-03-05
Cost of Colt.

The sum of nearly $4,000, 900 is ex-
pended yearly on the game of golf, and
of this sum about a third is spent by
England and about a fifth by Scotland.
There are no fewer than S79 golf clubs
in England alone. The United States
has 1853; Scotland, 632; Ireland, 1874, and
Wales 43. There are SO dotted over
the continent, and no British colony Is
without one and in many cases several
links. In round numbers there are
5000 golf links in the world.
Estimates show that not less than
$4,000 has been sunk in each of these
clubs and the preparation of their
courses, SO that there has been total
permanent investment of about $45,-
100000. Few of these clubs are run on
less than $1,000 a year, and many of
them cost ten times that sum.
The revenue is usually not entirely
derived from subscriptions. Profits on
catering and refreshments, green fees
paid by visitors who use the links and
various other items swell the clubs
revenue and make them equal to the
strain put upon them.
Taking the average, these 1900 golf
clubs of the world cost about 500. 900
each a year to run. The average MEM
bership is about 200, and the average
subscription being $50, the total amount
paid in subscriptions by the 5000 golf
,,clubs is nearly $4,000, 600. But besides
these golfers there are many thousands
unattached, so that the entire golfug
population of the world is about 100000,
not including the professionals. caddies
and others who are Intimately concern
ed.
will oh hal
with the club dues, extra green fees,
purchases of clubs and balls and the
many other expenses of the player,
prominent among which are the rail-
road fares from residence to links, it is
inevitable that the golfers must spend
at the very least $50 a year. Many
spend that sum, and there is one we'll
known amateur who gives his golfing
expenses at SO, 800 yearly. But at the
modest average of $50 yearly the three
quarters of a million golfers would
spend among them So. 100000 a year.
Then each Of them possesses an out
fit the average cost of which is $50.
Many players use but seven sticks, and
few use more but most players have
at least twelve. Thus the golfing pub
lie has sunk about $4,000. 900 in the pur-
chase of clubs. One amateur confessed
that his twelve clubs We're priceless,
because he could not replace them TO
his satisfaction, but that they cost him
in actual money 1885.
The little ball has been the basis of
enormous business enterprises in both
England and America. Till lately the
ordinary gutta-percha ball, which Is
comparatively cheap, was used, and it
formed an insignificant part of a play
er's expenditure. But now the new ball
has core of gutta-percha strands
wound at a tension, and its cost is
much greater. Besides, it is easily dam
aged and made unfit for further play,
so that comparatively few are used for
more than three or four games. They
vary in price from 25 cents to IS cents,
the popular ball being that at the mid
die price. The average amateur spends
about 20 cents a week on balls, though
many are known to spend s.. But, av-
eraging the minimum, the golfers
of the world fritter away the sum of
SIS, 125, 900 on balls.