AMAZING ADVANCE OF GOLF.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12796, 30 September 1905, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMAZING ADVANCE OF GOLF.

writer of golfing notes in the London Daily Chronicle " says ths general public, although stall a little contemptuous, seems now: to accept golf as an' ineyi'abla institution.of t-he -peiiod. and bsfoie long may know the difference between a brassy and °r even take some interest in the. great events which annually stir ths soul of the golf world. But whether the present outsiders care to recognise the fact or. riot it is quite certain that golf is destined in the very near future to play a much greater part in the scheme of national recreation than it does at present. Even golfers themselves do not seem to realise the tremendous rate at which the game is coming on, and I. who follow these things somewhat closely, started in surprise when by different posts during the past week there came. to. me intimations of what was ■ going on in the making of new courses all over the country. Actually during the past week I have received notice of seven such new courses. Of these gev-en, four are in .{Scotland and three in England. At this rate—one new links a day—or at something .very much slower, 1905 will easily take the "record for increase in golf, even if it lias not already taken, it. which I rather suspect is the case. In their idle moments the general public, who have so far been inclined to scoff at golf, might do worse than reckon out for themselves what all this means in pounds, shillings and pence and in monopolisation of large tracts of land. ; Not much of a golf course can be laid out on less, than seventy acres, and a really good one. with long holes and no crossing will take the best part of a hundred and twenty. This land has to be bought or rented .on a- long lease. Apart from this charge a good £IOOO at the very least is necessary for laying out the course an filing up a clubhouse on tven a modest sca\e, and on more than one" course tlnit is in the making at the present time at least five times that anmunt is being spent. - It is also a sign of the times that owners of estates to be developed are coming to the conclusion that the best and quickest way of making these estates atractive is by first of all constructing a good golf course in the jricinity. There is afterwards never any doubt about a good class of people coming along in search of houses. Colwall is a case in point. , Th 6 proprietors are anxious to open out a fine estate which is lying idle there, and accordingly the first thing they do upon it is to set Willie Fernie to fix up the tees and bunkers and greens. •