Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-29
ONLY ONE Project
NOW ON FOOT HERE
Last Decade Brought Great
Development in Private
Links Enterprises.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

deVelopmenC arc u n q
i Washington apparently has
ended Only one private
club development project ap-
pears on the horizon as the wan
ing days of 1880 slide past and
another decade makes it's debut.
The frenzied early days of the dec
ade, between 1920 and 1880, when no
fewer than six private clubs had their
beginning have gone, and Washington,
now with an ample number of private
country clubs to handle the large num-
Der of golfers who play the game, has
lapsed into period of inactivity in SO
far as the development of new clubs is
concerned. Probably the next decade
will see not more than one private
country club project launched about
the Capital, in addition to the one al
ready started, and the next 10 years
are quite likely to see the older coun-
try clubs more firmly intrenched.
The Strathmeade development, near
Falls Church, Va, is the only club de-
velopment now going on around the
Capital, and there are no others pro-
jected, as far as we have been able to
ascertain.
From 1920 to 1924 was a period of
lively development of new country clubs
around Washington. In this period
the following clubs were organized and
developed: Burning Tree, Congressional,
Indian Spring, Manor and Argyle. A
year or so later came Beaver Dam, a
net addition to the list of country clubs
about Washington of six clubs, and all
of them were clubs which nurtured a
group of new golfers, many of them
from that great breeding ground for
prospective country club MEMBERSHIP
municipal courses. If these six clubs
have an average membership of $50
land the figures probably are higher
than that, or a net gain of $500 play
ers, the growth of the game between
1920 and 1880 will be seen to have been
very large. This has been reflected in
the tremendous increase in the number
of entries in the invitation tournaments
about the Capital and the generally en-
HANGED interest in the game as a whole.
No Golf Depression.
Conceding 1880 to have been year
of general depression (which it has not
been in a golf way around Washington
it may be readily seen that the Begin
ming of the new decade would not be
likely to see the launching of new coun-
try club projects. But if we view the
years from 1921 to 1929 as boom years,
and note the extensive new country
club developments in that period, may
not the return of general prosperity
bring about a number of such new de-
velopments?
The Kenwood Country Club was an
other country club project launched
about four years ago. but Kenwood is
not claSSed by the District Golf ASso-
citation as private golf club. The Dis
trict association has refused Kenwood's
application for membership in the or
ganization on the ground that 1t does
not conform to the paragraph in the
constitution of the association which
says that the property and club house
Of all member clubs must be owned or
controlled by the club. Kenwood, the
District association officials say, is owned
and controlled by the real estate de-
velopment owning the property.
The last decade has most certainly
ben period of great development OF
golf clubs about the Capital, and it is
not reasonable to hold that the coming
decade will show the same accretion.
One or two clubs now have barely
enough members to meet current obliga-
tons, and while it would not be fair to
say that Washington is oversaturated
with country clubs, the saturation point
has been very nearly reached.
Naturally mounting costs of upkeep of
golf courses and generally enhanced
costs of everything that goes into the
maintenance of successful country
club have had something to do with the
matter, but the tip-off on the satura-
ton point is that within the last year
no fewer than four clubs have increased
their dues or levied an assessment on
their memberships. Under a situation
such as this new private country club
development, unless 1t is extremely well
financed, would have hard Shedding for
the first few years.
washington today has 10 large pri-
vate country clubs operating within a
radius of Is miles of the Capital. ALI
are successful and all maintain fine
golf courses in flrst-claSs condition,
The National Capital has more golf
clubs located in its enYirons than has
Baltimore, which has a population of
more than third more persons than
Washington, but no country club here
maintains two golf courses, as does the
Baltimore Country Club. However,
there are more golfers in Washington
than there are in Baltimore, and we
believe the standard of golf here is a
bit higher than in Baltimore, as was
shown by the results Of the Maryland
State Golf Association team matches
last Fall
So in view of The economic condi-
tons touched upon, /: is not likely that
there will be any, or at least many,
more country club developments about
the Capital during the coming decade
The probability is that the existing
clubs will strengthen their member
ship and their financial standing, will
gain more members, and will be in a
much firmer position by 1855 than they
ever have been before.