Evening star., 1932-11-25
BUSINESS IS EQUAL
=c::::TO OTHER SEASONS
Private Clubs Not Hit Hard
Enough to Worry Through
designations.
BY w. II. McCALLUM.

~ UBLIC links golf at the sew
- eral daily fee courses in and
near Washington has not
- suffered by the depression
which has hit some of the golf
clubs hereabouts. Play at East
Potomac Park, Rock Greek Park,
West Potomac Park, Anacostia
Park and Bannockburn, all of
which are operated on a daily fee
basis, has been as heavy this year
and continues as heavy during the
Fall as it ever has been at the
same season in other years.
While most of the local golf clubs are
on a sound financial basis and are not
suffering severely from designations, as
has been the case in other cities dur
ing the depression, the same cause has
aided the public links. Your golf ad-
dict will have his golf, whether at a
private club or on a public course,
and if he cannot afford to play at
private club he will play on course
where the fee is inexpensive.
A T Rock Creek Park. probably the
IA most popular Fall and Winter
public course around Washington,
the daily play has been heavy, and the
play on week ends has been as heavy
as in the Summer considering the
shortnesS of these late Fall days. The
volume of play according to Manager
3. Harry Graham, averages about the
same this year at this season as 1t did
in the Spring. AL Farr tells the same
story at East Potomac Park, and if you
listen to Tony Sylvester, the major
demo at Bannockburn, which is operat-
ing on a 50-cent weekday basis and
81 for week end play, the club is well
on the way to financial independence
because of the volume of play at these
rates.
Washington has been hit far less by
the current depression than most cities.
Not one of the local golf clubs has had
to close its doors by reason of reduc-
ton of income, nor have most of the
clubs lost enough members to cause any
great uneaSineSS as to the future. Here
and there club budgets have been cur
tailed, and various short cuts have been
taken to reduce expenses, but on the
whole the private clubs about the Capt.
tai have not suffered to any great
extent.
MANY persons who have belonged to
1v1 private clubs have found the ex-
- pense too much, however. Many
Government employees have felt the pay
reductions to the extent that they have
been forced to resign their club con-
nections. Among this group of golfers
come those who now use the public
courses, and thereby keep up the VOL
tirne of play on the daily fee layouts.
With five daily fee layouts operating
within short distance of downtown
Washington, golf addicts in the Capital
are fortunate in having good golf facil-
tiles within easy reach at cheap cost.
Still another daily fee course-the
White Flint Club on Wisconsin avenue
lies a few miles farther away from
the heart of Washington.
Up at Rock Greek Park Manager
Graham has kept interest alive among
the golfers who use that hilly layout
by frequent tournaments. Just now the
turkey" tournament is being wound
UP. Earlier in the year a tournament
for the uptown" championship was
played, and there have been several
ore-day events staged. All in all it has
been good year for the public courses,
and, considering conditions, good year
for the private golf clubs, too. But
the very causes which have contributed
to some designations from the private
clubs have enhanced the play on the
public links in and near Washington.