DOLLARS FOR COURSES

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 11 (Supplement)

DOLLARS FOR COURSES

U.S.A.’S OUTLAY ON GOLF LINKS FURBISH WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED BIG MONEY FOR IMPROVEMENTS Uncle Sam dug into his pockets for around 10,500’000 dollars of emergency relief funds during the last 13 months to build and improve golf courses. That amount was spent by the Works Progress Administration. The big splurge on golf occurred last year wnen the Government financed work on 306 courses, scattered over the land, at a cost of 9,359,6J9 dollars. The latest figures available for this year covered 62 additional links, with an expenditure of 1,234,428 dollars. Work is in progress on some now. Local sponsors have contributed approximately 1,500,000 o/er the entire period, bringing the total outlay for WPA golf projects to around 12,000,000 dollars. Golf was only one of the sports that pulled the Government’s emergency purse strings. A big lump of the relief money has gone for the building of stadiums, playgrounds, baseball fields, swimming pools and other developments. The biggest golf project handled through WPA cash was the Bethpage park course on Long Island, with four 18-hole courses radiating from a single clubhouse. The national public links golf championship was played there this summer. All ths WPA golf expenditures were on municipal links. It is likely that more work ’relief money will go for golf in 1937, although 4Jie WPA programme has not been announced. A short while ago, George Jacobus, president of the Professional Golfers' Association, said he had learned from Federal authorities that around 600 new public courses would be built within a few years, with work on some likely to start next year. ________