MORRIS COUNTY CLUB-HOUSE, NEW JERSEY,.

The membership is limited to 75, and there are about 70 names now upon the list. The initiation fee is $50, and the same amount is charged as the annual subscription.

The Chicago Golf Club has at Wheaton (a suburb of Chicago) what is undoubtedly the finest golf course in all America. It has been laid out in strict conformity to accepted old-world conditions, and the result is highly creditable to the care and good judgment of Mr. C. B. Macdonald and his associates. Of course the quality of the soil is different from that of St. Andrews and Prestwick, but the turf is excellent; a good drive is hardly ever punished by a bad lie; the hazards are of the proper sort, consisting chiefly of sand bunkers, with an occasional water-jump; there are no trees, stones, or buildings upon the course, and, above all, the holes are laid out in such a way as to virtually eliminate the element of chance. The playing length foots up 5,877 yards, the longest hole being 560 yards, and the shortest 129 yards.

A certain well-known and popular member of the club holds what is certainly one kind of a record for this same short hole. During a recent medal competition he drove eleven balls into the pond before he succeeded in getting one over, and his score for the hole was 25.

The general plan of the course is that of a double round, along the sides of a quadrangle, with the club-house and polo field on the fourth side. The amateur championship for 1897 was decided upon the Chicago Club's course, Mr. H. J. Whigham, of the neighbouring Onwentsia Club, winning even more easily than at Shin-necock the year before. The playing length in detail is as follows : - 1st, 337; 2nd, 327; 3rd, 319; 4th, 390; 5th, 328, 6th, 560; 7th, 300; 8th, 268; 9th, 138; 10th, 129; nth, 242; 12th, 308; 13th, 513; 14th, 334; 15th, 350; 16th, 317; 17th, 347; 18th, 314. The "Bogey" is 41 for both out and in.

The list of leading players includes : Charles B. Macdonald, V. Shaw Kennedy, G. S. Willits, B. M. Wilson and H. Alward.

Members must be shareholders in the organisation, the limit of membership and the number of shares being fixed at 250, the par value of the shares being $200. The yearly dues are $40 for regular members. Temporary subscribers pay $50 annually, and the clergy and officers of the army and navy $25. There are about 200 members and a small list of subscribers.

A few miles away, at Lake Forest, are the grounds of the Onwentsia Golf Club, also an 18-hole course, and inferior in playing value only to that of the Chicago Club. The plan of the course bears a striking relation to the lines of a spider's web, with the polo field as its centre, and the playing distance is 2,727 yards out and 3,006 yards in, or 5,733 yards in all. The "Skokie river" and plantations of trees are the principal natural hazards, and the few artificial ones are placed with excellent judgment. The 8th hole (275 yards) is remarkable in that the line of play makes a right angle before the green is within the range of practical politics. The distances : - 1st, 388; 2nd, 183; 3rd, 485; 4th, 215; 5th, 195; 6th, 300; 7th, 338; 8th, 275; 9th, 350; 10th, 445; nth, 400; 12th, 510; 13th, 345; 14th, 323; 15th, 327; 16th, 140; 17th, 300; 18th, 210.

Prominent among the Onwentsia playing members are : H. J. Whigham (amateur chainpion for 1896 and 1897), D. R. Forgan, W. B. Smith, and Lawrence Tweedie.

The club is managed as a stock company, but there are several classes of members who may enjoy the privilege of the house and grounds, although they have no voice in the management of the club affairs. The initiation fee is $100, and men pay yearly subscriptions of $35; nonresidents pay $50 initiation and $20 in dues. Unmarried women and widows pay $100 initiation and $10 as an annual subscription. Boys (from twelve to twenty-one years of age), pay annual dues of $10, but they must be sons or brothers of active members. The wives, daughters, and sisters of members are admitted upon payment of $10 annual dues. The limit of active membership is fixed at 300, and there are now 254 regular, I life, I non-resident, 7 army and navy, 2 honorary, and 6 women members, or 274 in all, and exclusive of the junior enrolment.

Next upon the list of eighteen-hole courses comes Ardsley, the Millionaires' Club, as it is sometimes called. The club grounds are at Dobbs Ferry-on-the-Hudson, and the club owns a magnificent piece of property stretching for half a mile along the banks of the beautiful river and then running back into the country. All the land in this section is held at enormous figures, and the Ardsley course, in its first cost and subsequent improvement, is probably the most valuable piece of golfing property in the world. Willie Dunn was employed to lay out the course (at first one of nine holes), and he was given carte blanche in the matter of expense. A perfect army of workmen were busy for months in felling trees, filling up ravines, and otherwise preparing the ground for the game, and the result of their labours is both beautiful to the eye and good golf as well. In 1897 nine more holes were added, the total length of the course being now 6,020 yards. There are, perhaps, too many trees on the course to suit the wild driver, but the man who will keep the line is pretty sure to be rewarded by an excellent lie. The "Alps" are a curious group of artificial grassy bunkers invented by Dunn. They have the appearance of miniature mountains, and certainly no Scottish golfer ever saw anything like them. But they add variety to the scene, and Dunn had to find some way of giving his patrons their money's worth. The first putting green is another remarkable bit of work. A good portion of a deep ravine had to be filled up, and then backed with heavy logging to prevent landslips. From below it looks very much like a stockade of the old Puritan days. The cost of the work alone on these first nine holes was not far from $50,000. The new holes are not so distinguished for their freaky features, but are quite as good golf. The distances follow : - 1st, 205; 2nd, 225; 3rd, 290; 4th, 122; 5th, 375; 6th, 275; 7th, 183; 8th, 410; 9th, 260; 10th, 370; nth, 350; 12th, 150; 13th, 270; 14th, 250; 15th, 400; 16th, 460; 17th, 350; 18th, 500.