GOLF in the United States is the amusement of the well-to-do classes alone, and there is nothing on this side of the Atlantic to compare with the public commons on which golf is played in the British Isles. It is true that there are free links at Franklin Park, in Boston, and at Van Courtland Park, in New York City, but the golf that they furnish is of an indifferent order, and the general public has consequently been slow to realise the possibilities of the game. One must belong to an expensive club if he wishes to play golf, and of course this entails initiation fees, annual subscriptions, and the various other expenses incidental to club membership. The poor man has no place as yet among American golfers, and the sport remains as distinctly exclusive as is polo or yachting. The big clubs have immense sums invested in land and buildings. Their running expenses are very heavy, and the charges for coaching, supplies, club-making, and the like are ridiculously out of proportion to their actual value. Willie Dunn is reported to have said that the expense of making the first putting green of the Ardsley course (Dobbs Ferry-on-Hudson) was equal to the entire cost of the average 9-hole course in Great Britain. The Morris County, Knollwood, Shinne-cock Hills, Chicago, and St. Andrews Clubs, are among those owning their own land, and the average sum invested is not far from $100,000, equivalent to a very respectable ground-rent. The Newport, Ardsley, Ouwentsia (Chicago), Philadelphia County, Essex County, Shinnecock Hills, and Chicago Clubs all possess magnificent club-houses, fitted up with sleeping apartments, grill-rooms, and every possible luxury and convenience. Naturally all of this costs money, both to establish and to maintain, and it makes golf an expensive amusement, far too expensive for the man of moderate means. A season subscription at the Shinnecock Hills Club costs $60 for a man and his wife, and for each additional member of his family he must pay an extra $15. If he puts a friend up at the club the charge is $1 a day for the mere privilege of playing over the course.

Since golf has been made a fashionable fad, it is perhaps inevitable that its development in America should have been along these lines of outward show, but it must not be inferred that the element of genuine sport has been entirely overlooked. Golf is played for its own sake; if it were not so, not a club-house in the United States would open its doors for another season. Golf has been accepted upon its merits, and it is only a question of time when it will take its place upon the calendar of national sports, and be within the reach of every one who cares to handle a club. Moreover, the tennis and field clubs are all taking up the game in obedience to the growing demand, and are laying out short courses as a side issue to baseball and tennis. And in many cases golf is rapidly supplanting its older rivals, and play-clubs and mashies are more in evidence than are bats or rackets. Most of these smaller clubs belong to the United States Golf Association, and their membership is largely composed of the younger people. Their initiation dues and subscriptions are on a comparatively moderate scale, averaging %10 yearly, and it is upon their courses that the boys and girls of the rising generation are learning to appreciate and to play the game.

Golf in America had its first real beginning in 1887, when Mr. John Reid and Mr. Robert Lockhart, two expatriated Scotchmen, started in to play the game on some pasture land near the city of Yonkers, N.Y. Ten years before that, Mr. Charles B. Macdonald had tried to introduce the game in Chicago, but he made no converts, and finally gave it up in despair. Mr. Reid and his "Apple-tree" gang, as it was styled in affectionate raillery, had better success, and in 1888 they organised themselves into the St. Andrews Golf Club, and laid out a regular 9-hole course. The club grew steadily in numbers and enthusiasm, and in 1894 they took the lease of an old farm, remodelled the dwelling-house for club use and laid out a new and better course, although still one of 9 holes. And now, in the autumn of 1897, the club has just taken possession of what they hope will be a permanent home. The new course of 18 holes is at Mount Hope, on the Putnam railway, twenty miles from New York City, and the club property embraces a tract of 160 acres of the picturesque Westchester County. The course is over 5,000 yards in playing distance, and possesses grand possibilities for good golf. The turf is excellent, being old pasture land, and the hazards are nearly all natural ones. The putting greens are 100 feet square, and will be very good and true in time. There is hardly a hole that can be said to come under the category of "levellers," and good long driving is consequently the prime essential for a low score. It has been the aim of the club to create a course that shall conform as nearly as possible to Old World standards, with the idea that their St. Andrews may assume the same premiership in the American golfing world that the St. Andrews holds abroad. An impartial observer must, however, put in a demurrer in favour of the Chicago Club's course at Wheaton, 111. The latter certainly gives better all-round golf, but then it has had the start of St. Andrews by several years, and no golf course can be made in a summer. St. Andrews may yet take the lead as the course is developed under the searching analysis of actual play. The present playing length of the separate holes is as follows : - 1st, 306; 2nd, 293; 3rd, 274; 4th, 344; 5th, 308;

ST. ANDREWS CLUB-HOUSE, MOUNT HOPE, NEW YORK.

6th, 328; 7th, 411; 8th, 137; 9th, 370; 10th, 199; 11th, 365; 12th, 272; 13th, 190; 14th, 220; 15th, 160; 16th, 235; 17th, 415; 18th, 205; total, 5,032 yards.

The well-known players of the St. Andrews Club include : W. H. Sands, L. B. Stoddart (amateur champion in 1894), James Park, J. R. Chadwick, A. M. Robbins, John Reid, jun., H. L. Sweny and F. W. Menzies. The initiation fee is $100, and the annual subscription $30. The membership limit is fixed at 400.