Golf Course Shortage In U.S.A.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30553, 23 September 1964, Page 15

Golf Course Shortage In U.S.A.

A MONTH’S visit to the United States which embraced the inspection of a number of golf courses has convinced Mr I. T. Harding that Christchurch is a golfers’ paradise—at least from the point of view of proximity. Mr Harding is the manager of the pumping and irrigation division of Andrews and Beaven, Ltd., designers of many course watering systems in

New Zealand, and spent part of his American visit investigating new trends in this field.

He formed an impression that the country did not appear to be able to build enough course? to cater for the steadily increasing golfing population which

stands, at present, at about six million. Many golfers had to call at their clubhouses at 5 a.m. to put their names down for a round later in the day.

One course visited by Mr Harding had 750 players through in a day; its highest monthly patronage amounted to 22,000. Mr Harding found most of the clubs had closed memberships. The joining fee was about £l7O, and the average subscriptions ranged from £ll to £25 a month. Green fees at the betterclass clubs were from 21s to 25s a round, and caddies

were hired at 30s a bag. A good caddy, said Mr Harding, could earn between £36 and £4O a week without any trouble.

Battery-operated carts were available at 25s a round, but the price soared

to £2 15s at the week-ends. The wages paid to course employees were correspondingly high. Golf superintendents, who supervised course staff, earned between £4300 and £5400 if they were in the top bracket and lived in the southern States, where golf was played throughout the year. A working greenkeeper earned between £2500 and £3OOO a year, and unskilled casual labour was hired at the rate of Ils 6d an hour for four months of the year.

But, said Mr Harding, balanced against these wages was America’s high cost of living.

A big new trend in the American golf world was the creation of courses surrounded by residential estates, a scheme in which the properties intermingled with the character of the course. Persons purchasing properties became eligible for membership of the golf club. They did not have to play golf, but the facilities of the plush country club on the course were available to them. Mr Harding was greatly impressed by one such course the Professional Golfers’ Association course at Florida. The club house cost £465,000 and the prices of the 180 sections surrounding the course ranged from £l6OO to £4500. Nothing was considered to be too much trouble in the fashioning of this 1000-acre oasis; Grown trees were shifted bodily for transplanting, swamp land was reclaimed and waterways were shaped to provide course hazards and backdoor aquatic avenues for property owners with motor boats. Driving ranges and floodlit nine-hole courses were not uncommon in places visited by Mr Harding. He found that the holes on the floodlit courses were of regulation length—not just “chip and putt jobs.” Watering systems definitely were the rule rather than the exception in the United States, Mr Harding discovered. The trend was to water every course from tee to green; the P.G.A. course at Florida had 1050 automatic sprinklers installed. Clubs with watering systems were in the minority ■in New Zealand, but Mr Harding believes there is a growing awareness of the benefits of watering. The extent of systems depended on finance available but in every case there was a saving of labour and a more efficient control of water useage.