This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. THE MAKING OF A NEW COURSE. WHEN the number of Scotchmen who have crossed the Atlantic is fully considered, it is rather surprising that the royal and ancient game should have been imported so recently as 1890 or thereabouts. It was really two years later that a genuine interest in golf was aroused by the organizing of clubs for the purpose of its propagation; and the United States Golf Association has only been in existence for three seasons. Once started, however, the devotion to the game became almost a craze. At the time of writing nearly a hundred clubs have joined the association, and the number will in all probability be doubled in the course of the next twelve months. To an Englishman, who, in the last decade, has seen innumerable golf courses spring up like mushrooms over every county in Great Britain, the membership of the association may appear disappointingly small. But when it is remembered that it is as easy, from a financial point of view, to form a hundred clubs in England as it is to place one on a firm basis in America, the strides made by the association in the short period of three years must be taken to indicate a love of the pastime which far exceeds the ordinary short lived boom so often accorded to any new fad in this country. The Difficulties The difficulties of securing to be Overcome. a suitable course, and of maintaining it when secured, can hardly be realized .by any one who has been accustomed to find golf links ready made along the coast, of Great Britain. Since most courses in America are of necessity inland, and since the very best soil can only yield the requisite quality of turf, the land which is bought by an incipient golf club, instead of being practically worthless for any other...