I do not have one, and I am just curious to all the private club members out there how much you are paying. I know it is kind of personal so you don't have to name the course but I am a young professional trying tofigure out what kind of funds are necessary to afford such a luxury. I know prices are going tovary all over but I was just curious to see what the fees are. Thanks!

$3,000

3 Courses, 2 have ranges (free), $15 cart fee if I ride. Usually I walk.

-mini

100k initiation

12.5k yearly membership dues

Its an equity position membership

$1900 a year.

Joining fee was $400 when I joined but is $2500 now.

that's alot of scratch for golf...

do you guys that have memberships play that course only...?

i think i'd get bored if i played the same course 3x a week...

Mines £900 uk sterling which exchanges to about $1800 usd , not bad as it is a regional British Open qualifiying course.

$850, yearly, discounted cart fees and 10% off of pro shop in addition to no green fees.

It's the University of Florida golf course. That's the student price right there. I think it's a wonderful deal.

My courst is not a country club, but 2 golf courses. No other ameneties.

3 levels of membership, $500 for the basic which gets you out on 1 of the two courses. You still pay for greens fees, but it's cheaper than most upscale public courses in the area. I can walk for $28 on the weekday, or $37 on the weekend. W/ Cart is another $20. Plus, it's FAR less crowded, so I can get in 18 after work with no problem.

The highest level is $3000, and gets you out for free on both, but you pay for carts on both. There are no monthly dues or proshop requirements.

there is an annual? listing from Washington Golf Styles magazine for the DC area. Private clubs i think were from 40k to 90k, some equity some not. waiting list for nearly all of them, the issue here is that besides the wait of whatever # of years (though i heard you can play while waiting at some clubs during the winter or whatever). What else is important is that keep in mind that DC is not 12 months of golf so you are paying for time you are not able to use it for months at a time. Obviously boston would be worse than here, and raleigh durham would be better and atlanta better than raleigh you get the idea... So there is a decent one that is 70k local with a 3? year waiting list. you pay that over 5 years and it is equity so you get more out as the prices are raising so if you move voila, but remember it is also like 350+ a month, but that includes indoor tennis and food and whatever...
My plan??? MOVE and find one that is 30k or less...

$2160 a year. Paid monthly at $180. Includes range balls but not cart fees.

Initiation fee is around $5,000 no I think. Although it was $1,250 when I joined a few years ago.

Mine was 20k to join and about 7500 per year. Being under 30 years old saved me a lot.

at my course there are no initiation fees, but for juniors (under 30) i paid $900. unlimited golf, from april, till october. tack on $145 for the range, and that is it.

it's a semi-private course with reserved tee times and blocked off days from the public.

and since i am a teacher, it gets a ton of use

£1325 for full unrestricted 7 day membership.

Private course in London with no tee times as the membership is kept deliberately small to allow this.

is junior membership only under 30 in the US?

As in the UK i thought junior membership was under 18

My club is now around 18k initiation and then the yearly dues are approx. $3600 single, $5000 family
On top of this, you get a $100 locker fee, $100 range fee, minimum spending in the clibhouse (about $100 month) as well. All in all, as a single member (putting wife on next year) it costs me about 6-7k yearly, when you factor in tournament fees. Now to be honest, I take customers out, like this wednesday to a member guest, and I will expense the whole day. Similarly, I expense normal rounds with customers, but also charge my company for a greens fee that I do not pay. This helps cut into the actual cost. If you have the opportunity to bring business into it, bring it up with you boss and see if it would fly if you could entertain customers or clients.

To me, the real benefit of belonging to a club, is the camaraderie of a decent club. When my wife is out of town or busy, I can go up on a Friday night, hit some balls, know 10-15 people on teh range, hang out, have a few beers in the bar, maybe putt a bit.

under 30, so SAVED A TON!!!

Private Country Club--hosts tons of GSGA qualifiers and quite a few tourneys...
$2100 initiation
$141 per month includes range
walking free
carts $16
$45 dining minimum

UK ones often have intermediate categories (19-30) to attract younger golfers. My club has staggered levels of intermediate memberships

Intermediate (Age 27-30) 30% discount of full price
Intermediate (Age 24-26) 50% discount
Intermediate (Age 19-23) 70% discount

I suppose it depends on the club

Private club:

$1,000 to join.
175 per month dues
$100 per year range fee
$45 yearly locker fee
$30 per month storage and/or trail fee (if you own your own cart)
$25 per month food minimum
$12 cart fee (I rarely use it)

Cheers for that i will ask at the clubs i was intersted in joining.

I try to play at a minimum, 4-5 holes a day and I practice almost every day. Do I play my courses (3) all the time? No. My friends get "benefits" from other courses and we play there sometimes too.

Actually.....I haven't played a full 18 at my home course in over a month. It's nice though...very nice. I'm looking at another one that's going to be ~$600/yr and include anytime golf.

I guess we'll have to see. I enjoy my club more though since I can practice all I want for free.

-mini

Its like 32 to join, and 250 a month and they want a X amount spent in the shops around also. But it comes with like either 1 free round a week or a month instead of free golf. Its a 36 hole place called ventana canyon. and its pretty nice.

£700 joining fee and £700 annual fees at the club where I play. It's pretty quiet in the evening (afterwork) so I tend to play most days weather permitting.

Sometimes we get "courtesy" tee time blocks for other local golf courses, and can play for free if our course is booked up by their members. We have the option of joining our local golf association which gives you half price green fees at 100's of courses in the region including The Open courses, ie. Royal Liverpool (Hoylake).

I don't belong to a private club but I do belong to a public course and some people are concerned about getting bored with the course and I play 4-6 times a week and I never really get bored if your concerned about that.

Must be nice, I gues none of the above live in California!!

Here's my private club.

I'm a junior member (<35) so I didn't have to by the stock up front, instead I pay $50 a month that goes to my stock purchase when I turn 35. Junior member also get a 25% discount off of annual dues. Here is the price for a full certificate holding member.

Application fee $1,000
Certificate cost $7,500 (will get that back if you leave)
Annual Dues are around $3,000 =/- $250
Restaurant/bar minimum $225 per quarter

Our course has hosted a few USGA junior championships and women's trans-con, but the alure to me is the practice facilites. We have a nice big range, 9 hole par 3 course, 135 yard "19th hole" with sand traps, a <50 yard chipping area, and two big putting greens.

Our club is currently full with 450 members and that's saying something since the big course has been flooded out most of the summer.

Mine was $2500, but they waived it, as they were looking for members at the time.

Monthly dues are ~$335-$350, depending on how often I ride in a cart ($15/ride).

Northern California.
$ 11k upfront.
app. 350 per month (includes dues, 60 cart lease, 40 monthly bar min, 8 range ball fee)
A steal in california terms.
The course is a players course, tough and small elevated greens, so it doesn't get boring. also, have reciprocation and travel with the asst's to other courses when i want to play elsewhere.

Funny this comes up. I was just recently researching different clubs in my area. I'm trying to find one to join next year.

There are a lot of clubs here in S.FL and they are surprisingly affordable.

As an example of a few near me:
- Miccosukee Golf Club is $1,800/yr.
- Calusa is $1,400/yr.
- Miami Beach Golf Club is $3,000/yr for Miami Beach residents, and $5,500/yr for everyone else
- Inverrary in Ft. Lauderdale, FL is $2,300/yr.

I'm not sure if any of these have initiation fees yet. I'll find out and update.

Mine is £200/$400 (student/intermediate fee's from 18-25 years old).

I was wondering if someone could answer why anybody would join a private country club where the initiation fee is something like 50K and then an annual fee of 8K? I'm asking because if you take the total of just the annual rate and divide it by 75 rounds, which is a substantial amount of golf, and it turns out to be about $110 per round. This is assuming that you live somewhere where you can play all year round and its not including the other fees like cart fees, food fees, or the original initiation fee.

So you can just about say that it costs nearly $150 per round if you fit in 75 rounds in that year. Plus you have to pay for guests to play there. So could anybody answer what the advantage of doing such a thing is? You can play some of the best courses in your area for about the same price and you don't have to play the same course over and over again. Thanks.

Very few private clubs will work if you apply this type of model. Basically you are paying for the right to play in under 4 hours on a Saturday and Sunday morning which means you need less golfers and pay more money. There are also business reasons, course conditioning, reciprocal privileges, personal relationships and yes, status in society. None of this means that it is write or wrong, just different.

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=103438

See this thread for more reasons.

Status.

-mini

Because they can. This is not a flippant answer. There is something to be said for the exclusivity of that type of club. Why do some drive Lamborghinis and Ferraris when there are autos that have performance that is close at a fraction of the cost? Same reason.

Elitist? Certainly. But then again, wealth does have its perks.

hahaha.

Granted my club doesn't cost near that much, but I can go out on Sunday afternoon and play 18 in under 2 hours if I wanted to. Plus, even on the busiest weekends, rarely do we ever have a 3 1/2 hour round. Tournaments are another story (5+ hours sometimes).

I am a member of two clubs here in the Houston area. One I have a corporate membership at which gives me a certain amount of rounds per year, and that ends up being about $65 a round. Not bad for the #1 ranked course in the Houston area. I believe we have about 900 or so members out here, so we have tee times here and its more difficult to get a good time on the weekend.

The other is the place where I've been a member at since I was 12. Its dirt cheap, conditions are spotty at times but when all things hit right its in fantastic shape. Its where almost all of my friends have played out of. We have about 300 members, of which only probably 50-75 play regularly. We have no tee times here and you can almost always walk up and tee off.

man, wish i could get join a course where the dues were half of that and i live in oregon, haha.

most of the solid courses around here carry pretty hefty (for me) initiation fees. i've heard some run from $5k-$30k plus monthly dues.

if anyone lives in the portland metro area and has any recommendations -- they would be graciously welcomed.

coming from california, i was extremely spoiled. $1600/yr for a 7200 yard championship track. here... not so much :p I'm using my golf course comp to the fullest

I'm moving to California this fall, so I dunno if I'll be able to afford a membership. If I was staying in this area (PA), I'd definitely join. I could join any number of clubs for $3,000 or less per year, no restaurant or bar minimums. I am lucky right now in that I can play golf during the week, but even so, I haven't had a sub 4.5 hour round in months. I mean, 5 1/2 hours on a Tuesday afternoon? Gimme a break! Forget about weekends. I got sick of getting up at 5:30, racing to the course to get there by 6:30, and not getting home until 1 or 2. I won't play golf on the weekends anymore, it isn't any fun.

It's a shame because I used to be the guy who loved to play different courses. Now, I'd happily play the same course 2-3 times a week if I could get a round in at 4 hours. It's just a strain on my family to take any more time than that.

$14,000 joining fee (90% refundable if you move out of the estate)
$2,400 p.a. single
$800 p.a. bar spend ($200 per quarter)
$15 cart fee, or walking is free
$250 p.a. trail usage fee if you want to use you own golf cart on the course

It's not good value, but it is the Number 1 course in the state. Can only join if you live there too. The club is still growing and I think Troon and the property developer are kicking in a lot of money to make it work at present. They're talking about 400 members as a goal.

able to play the round in 3-3.5 hours, 4 hours on a bad weekend day.... getting home to my 11 month old son by 10.30 am with the entire day left.....pricelesss........

......also 2.5-3 hours on a weekday morning....

I was wondering why anyone would want to be a doctor? It takes so many years of study and costs so much that you could easily accumulate more wealth by becoming an engineer or lawyer.

I belong to two private clubs.

Club #1 is a private non-equity club that a seasonal membership costs me about $1,500 a year plus about another $250 in food. It is in the development that my family has a house in the Pocono mountains and I get up to play maybe 20 or so rounds a year.

Club #2 is a private corporate owned club that costs me $260 a year for dues, $30 a year for my locker and another $20 a year for handicap service. I play maybe 50 rounds a year here and it is my primary club. I can play any time during the week or on the weekend in under 3 hours and the course is always in fantastic shape. It will cost me an additional $50 a year to add my son when he is old enough to be a junior member. This is the best deal that I have ever found for club membership.

I also live in the Philly area and was wondering if you could clarify what a private corporate owned club means? I am guessing you have to be in the corporation you work at to get those prices (or to get in at all), because that is really cheap and sounds great.

It basically means that the company that I work for owns the club and membership has been offered to employees only for most of its existence. I believe that there are now associate memberships available for around $1,600 a year. Still not a bad deal. The Philly public courses offer a season pass for around $1,500 a year which is not bad if you like playing Cobbs Olde Course or Karakung.

Have you ever gotten a bill from a doctor that hadn't first gone to your insurance company? I have. ....that's why.

-mini

$260 a year? That is an incredible deal. Which corp owns the course if you don't mind us asking?

Exelon. Same company that is one of Jim Furyk's sponsors.

mini,

Do you happen to belong to Avalon? I live about an hour from there and play there a few times a year. It is a great course (s) and a great deal.

Wow. I must be cheap or missing the concept. I play golf about once/week ~$30/round so that's ~$120/month (I live in NC so golf is just about year around).

I could not possible justify a membership a a club....although I'm still trying to convince myself (and my wife too!) that it is worth the money.

Guys in the Atlanta area. Check out this heck of a deal on golf memberships. You get a membership to 18 courses. Atlanta golf deal
Why can other areas adopt this model. I would be all over this.