War Has Not Upset Golf

Southland Times, Issue 24001, 16 December 1939, Page 20

War Has Not Upset Golf

Even with a war on, people still play golf, but for those outside the armaments trade there is no superabundance of cash, and so the old growling is heard once more about the expense of the game, writes a London correspondent.

This expense falls more heavily in proportion on the man who plays his one or two rounds on a Saturday or Sunday only than on the man who plays more frequently. The weekly bill may be represented as follows: Proportion of annual subscription and Christmas box, 7/6; petrol or railway fare, 2/6; caddie, 4/-; lunch, and so on, 3/6; ball, 2/6; a total of 20/-, or at the rate of £52 per annum. Contrast this with the early experiences of an old Scottish golfer. As a boy he learned his golf on the North Inch, Perth, for nothing, with a cleek which cost 4/6 and a gutta percha “remake,” price 2d, and his lunch was the school lunch, a scone with jam, price |d. More to the point was his membership in early manhood of a Monifieth club. He had one of the best courses in the world to play over at a green fee of 3d. His club membership cost 7/6 per annum. The clubhouse was a wooden hut, and its chief fitment was a big locker stocked with bottles of beer. You helped yourself and left 4d (the price those days) for each bottle consumed. The return fare from Dundee, where he was stationed, was 3|d. This totals about 1/- a week compared with the pound he now pays, and he sweats that he had more fun and happiness and as much good fellowship for his bob as for his pound ....

Oh, yes, and the Haskell, which was the great ball of those days, cost 9d, brand new and all spick and span in its whiteness.