Woods and Irons Putter Around in Style : Recreation: As golf mania grows, so does the selection of designer bags. The height of luxury: a $17,500 crocodile number.

Last year, 2.5 million people in the United States took up golf, says Bob Thomas of the Southern California Golf Assn., and it seems safe to assume most of them needed a golf bag.

To be sure, not every player headed to Gucci for the $2,300 leather-and-canvas house special. Functional and fashionable non-designer bags cost between $120 to $400. But isn’t it nice to know that if you want a designer carrier for your beloved putters, woods and irons, it’s out there?

With shouts of “Fore!” on the rise, more and more prestige companies are tempting golfers with costly country-club chic.

The height of luxury is a $17,500 green crocodile bag on display in Gucci’s New York store. Takers for the understandably slow seller tend to be Japanese tourists. “The Japanese are crazy about golf,” explains Pilar Crespi, Gucci’s international director of communications.

In Beverly Hills, Louis Vuitton offers a monogrammed leather-and-canvas “travel size” bag (holds 10 to 12 clubs) for $2,100.

“It’s very expensive compared with other golf bags,” concedes store manager Anne Lee. But the store sells 10 a year.

At Prada, owner Judy Leaf says she is ordering more of the $2,000 nylon-and-leather Prada golf bags that move at the rate of one a month.

As golf mania grows, so do the designer options. Belding Sports, an Oxnard company specializing in custom-made bags, recently introduced a limited-edition Woody Woodpecker collector’s item (expected retail price for the panoramic scene of Woody playing the ukulele: $1,800 to $2,200).

And this spring, Polo Ralph Lauren added a $2,000 black-watch plaid bag to its growing collection of golf clothing and accessories. The accessories include a black watch plaid umbrella and a Polo tee towel.