Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-12-16
wuy WILDWOOD MUST HAVE AN
1s.HOLE GOLF COURSE
Written by H. Foster GOslin
,orotary of the Wildwood Coli Club
compiled from Data Collected by
C. Howard Topham


Golf is now a national game and it
:. one that is attracting the attention
- thousands of lovers of outdoor
0xercise. sporting writer's and editors
throughout the country, and finally
'aooation resorts as a "a of pro-
.soting the popularity of each particu-
Ior resort. Golfers are now counted,
&c one writer has aptly said, by the
tors of thousands" and Alexander H.
Tindlay. the great goling expert and
rather of Golf in the United States,
claims that within five years there
will be five times as many people
Having golf as there are playing to-
dav. 1t is not hearsay that golf is on
the increase, or that the popularity of
the game is becoming more evident,
for we have only to go to the city that
supplies us with a great majority of
our summer visitors and vacationists.
q quote from a recent article in the
philadelphia Sunday Record:
"When the new course of the Phila-
delphia Cricket Club opens next
sprjng this city will have the honor of
having two clubs with two 18-hole
courses. 1t is a number of years since
the Merton Cricket Club opened it's
second course and for years the only
nriyate golf club in the country that
had more than one course was Merton.
Since then the idea has grown popular
in other sections of the country, par
ticularly in the New York Metropoli-
tan district. Near Madison, N. j., there
is a project on foot for three 1S-hole
courses and that is what the Phila-
delphia Cricket Club will probably
have within a few years, although
eventually the idea is to have two at
the new Flourtown course and nine
holes of the present IS at st. Martins
retained.
The Philmont Country Club expects
soon to have an additional 9-hole
course, which eventually may be
another 1S-hole links, and the chances
are that in a very few years several
of the clubs will have to have extra
9 or 1S-hole courses to accommodate
the members. Probably the busiest
course in the country, year in and year
out, is the Country Club of Atlantic
City. There during the year more
golfers play than on any single 1S-hole
course in the country. Yet is was only
last year that the extra 9 holes were
added to the course
Whitemarsh has under consider
alton a plan to extend the course to
either an extra 9 or IS holes. 1t is
only a question of time when the Lu
Lu Temple Country Club will have tc
add the acreage, so great is the de-
mand placed on the present course
No other club in the Philadelphia dis
trict has so many members as Lu Lu
and the Shriners have taken the great
est interest in the game since the
original 9 holes were built at Edge
Hill. and this interest has increased
since the new 18-hole links were built
Need Another Municipal Course
But, while the private clubs are
looking forward to the extension Of
their property by building addltlona
9 or 1S-hole courses, Philadelphia il
the only big metropolis in this country
which has but n municipal course
When it is remembered that during
the months of June and July and prac
tically all through the summer thu
average attendance on Saturdays ant
Sundays runs up around the 5OO-mark
when it is necessary for the golfers. II
reach the first tee in many Instance
before the sun is up, when at tlmei
members who, up down their bags a
9 o'clock have to wait until noon be
fore they can get away from the mrs
tee because of the congestion, 1t seem
strange that no concerted effort ma
been made to get additional gol
courses.
The Cobb's Creek course was tn
result of the efforts of the Golf Asso
citation of Philadelphia, and it tool
nearly 10 years of hard work to con
vince the Paramount Park Commls
sioners that there was a leg1timat
demand for a public course. IL ma
been a tremendous success from tn
start and the receipt OF moneys Iron
green fees and memberships has bee
more than has been needed to keep tn
course in playing condition. AS
matter of fact, the course has prove'
a rather profitable investment.
There was some talk about
course in the southern part OF the CITY
but nothing came of it and the chance
are that if any new courses VIII o
built they will be constructed IN III
northern ends of the city. No damag
is done to city property through con
version of land into golf courses. "A
a matter of fact, a golf course is usu
ally kept in better condition ina
many large private estates and the ali
ference in cost between malntalhlh
a bit of park property and the sam
translated into a golf course is NO
very great and is more than onset o
the big return from the public play
erS who now nav either a yearly mem