Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-08-06

"MyriadS Of business and professional
men are attiring themselves N knickers
and short sleevcd shirts and renewing
their youth in the green fields and be-
side the still waters.
Men who are too old for tennis or
baseball and too masculine for croquet
and too negligent to hold themselves
to any drudging routine of exercises.
are finding in golf real elixir of youth
the only golden panacea that will
bring back has been"
In metropolitan Philadelphia there is
today an investment of upward of
SIG. 900, 900 in lands and buildings de-
voted to golf.-and the above words by
George AIDE supply the explanation,
says the Corn Exchange. published by
the Corn Exchange National aBnk.
With devotees of the pastime multi
plying in astounding fashion in this and
all other builtup sections of the cOun
try. with old courses being enlarged an
new ones constructed. one may well
pause to consider the financial aspects of
the golf tidal wave.
About 10000 Philadelphia men play
golf They play at the thirty eight
country clubs, most of which compose
the Philadelphia Golf Association. a
view of the golf map shows Philadel-
| phia to be a city almost entirely sur
rounded by golf courses. On the north
| there is the Bucks County Country Club
at Langhorne. and from there south
ward the countryside is dotted with
them-thc Torresdale, the Huntington
| Valley. Old York Road. the White
marsh Valley. Philadelphia Cricket.
Sunnybrook, Lu Lu Temple. Philmont,
| Frankford, North Hills and the Stcnton
Country Clubs.
| Westward the case is the same.
Hardly road out of the city that does
not pass n golf course in the first five
miles. First the Philadelphia Country
| Club and the Bala and Overlook clubs,
then the Merton and st. Davids. Tredy-
ffrin and on to the big new Gulph Mills
Golf Club, in the hills this side of Nor
ristown. Also near Norristown is the
Plymouth Country Club.
Southwark and southwest the courses
begin at Lansdownc and Llanerch, and
taking in ArOnimink and Spring Haven,
near Swarthmore, provide facilities for
the game as far out as West Chester,
whore the West Chester Country Club is
located.
Across the Delaware river the New
Jersey clubs command strong member :
ships and number many active players.
| Pine Valley. Riverton, Moorestown,
MerChantvillc, Woodbury. and the Had
don Country Clubs. in the nearer sec q,
tions, are well known, and further east
are the seashore courses, Sea View and
the Country Club of Atlantic City.
Golf was played in Philadelphia as
early as anywhere in the United States.
This was in the early nineties, when
the first clubs were organizing in New
York and Chicago. The Merton Cricket
| Club, at Haverford, was the first or
ganization in the country to have two
eighteen hole courses, and held this
distinction for a number of years until
recently a few Chicago and San Fran
cisco clubs built second courses.
The growth of golf in Philadelphia
has been steady and continuous. This
year the Roxborough Country Club,
which has Just become member OF
the Golf Association of Philadelphia,
is having an active first season. and the
new Valley Green Country Club has
begun construction of an eighteen hole
course near Roxborough.
The passing Of each year brings more
| bVu'Iul TeCOeultiOu VI llt 'SSpDllbl
value of golf, and each year the number
of players increases. The man who in
the spring accompanies a friend out to
tho country club, smiling tOlerantly be .
cause he is seriously allotting Il whole
afternoon to playing golf, generally
falls victim himself before cool
weather If he cOndrsCPndS now and
then to take swing with club.
The first few times his fceIinps uro
mostly rage at his inability to accom- .
plish what he always held was the
trifing feat of hitting a small ball with