1896-1900, The Mother Of All Golf Booms?

[David_Tepper]

On page 198 of 'Willie Park Junior: The Man who took Golf to the World,' author Walter Stephen writes,

"In 1896 there were only 80 golf courses in the Unites States, four years later there were 982."

Does anyone know if these figures are correct? Building 900 golf courses in 4 years sounds incredible, even if many of the courses were likely of the "field with a haircut" variety.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I have figures on this somewhere... I'll try and dig them out...

But maybe it's only incredible because you are starting from a base figure of eighty... I'd hazard a guess that there are other periods of four years in American history where 900 (or at least close to) courses were opened for play... and probably with an average quality better than those 'Eighteen Stakes on a Sunday Afternoon' variety that dominated those late nineteenth century years...

But I suppose that if you are looking at %ge growth, then you are probably on the button....

[Phil McDade]

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if this figure -- although perhaps an exaggeration -- is close to being in the ballpark.

America was truly a boom country around the turn of the century. Cities were becoming truly the kind of cities they resemble today, with growing populations of folks with disposable income. Work schedules were becoming more regular, and theories and practices of leisure and recreation were taking hold. And, importantly from a golf perspective, the invention of the Haskell ball helped popularize the game in large part by reducing its cost.

[Mike Nuzzo]

That is a lot of courses for any century.
How would that many people know how to build or maintain that many?

The late 90s saw a single year high water mark of about 400 courses - but I wouldn't compare 1899 with 1999.

[BCrosby]

Just a guess, but I would think that from 1921 to 1926 there were an enormous number of courses built.

[Rich Goodale]

As I remember, there was a huge number of courses built in Kent during that period, most of which were quickly and ignomiously NLE.  Golf was probably the Hula Hoop of the 1890s.....

....and, now to think of it, maybe the 1990's too........

[Ulrich Mayring]

The number of golf courses in the 19th century is often overestimated, even for Europe. In 1888 there were only 138 courses in the UK (Scotland 73, England 57, Ireland 6, Wales 2). But starting in the 1890s about 100 courses per year were built right up to World War I.

The numbers for the US, that Walter Stephen quotes in his book, are actually from Cornish & Whitten (as are the ones above).

Ulrich