Anyone ever join a country club??

[Christine]

My ex-boss joined a golf club in Maryland many years ago (about 30 minutes outside DC). Back then, he had to pay close to $30,000 to join. I don't know what his monthly fees were. He was not rolling in money so I was a bit surprised but he did go there almost every night and play golf. Guess it was worth it to him.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

I managed one of the bars at a country club many years ago. I wouldn't hang out with those people by choice.

LOL--I probably wouldn't either--I guess I was just curious

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

My mil's advice was to join where your friends are, or you won't use it. We wound up joining a pool club instead. That was where all of our friends, and my kids friends gathered. It worked for us.

 

[lovetonap]

My mil's advice was to join where your friends are, or you won't use it. We wound up joining a pool club instead. That was where all of our friends, and my kids friends gathered. It worked for us.

I agree with this. That is why we joined our country club. So many friends and acquaintances belong. It is a huge part of our community.

 

[golfgal]

My mil's advice was to join where your friends are, or you won't use it. We wound up joining a pool club instead. That was where all of our friends, and my kids friends gathered. It worked for us.

That is how we got started golfing, so many of our friends in our old town golfed so we though we should try it if we wanted to have any kind of a social life. . It didn't take long to get addicted to the game.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

I used to work in the Golf Pro Shop for the local "private" (read expensive and exclusive) club in the area. They never posted prices because there were several steps you had to take before money even entered into the equation.

First you had to be a "guest" of a member for so many visits before moving to the next step (in other words, no outsiders, you had to know someone). The next step was a period of interviews with members that you were not acquainted with (I guess to see if others though you were worthy ). If you made it through all of that then you got the price list for the various memberships (social, golf, pool, etc.) These generally went from about $5000/year up to $20,000/year, depending on what you were using. This was about 15 years ago, so I'm sure it's even pricier now.

Needless to say the people at that Club were oft spoken about, and not in a good way. The experiences I had with some of the members were jaw-dropping (let's just say Tiger Woods' indiscretions are not an exception in the world of exclusive/high-priced golf, along with the members who complained when they found out an African-American was hired to cook their food ), and I could see why a PP mentioned not wanting to expose their kids to such an environment.

The semi-private club in the area, is much more accommodating to new members, who may be new to the area and not know other members. This club advertises their memberships at $1500-$5000 per year. I know a lot of people at this club, and I play golf there often (it is semi-private, so there are limited 'public' tee times available). I find the people there to be a lot more fun and more comfortable to be around. Of course, I'm there to play, and not wait on them hand & foot like I did when I was working the private club.

 

[mjkacmom]

Clubs like that around here are closer to $50,000.

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You only pay $1800 for a year-round country club, but $50,000 a year for a pool club (which here is a couple tennis courts, a 50 year old pool, and a snack bar, open from memorial day to labor day)? The initial fee for country clubs here is 5 figures, and the annual dues way more than a pool club.

 

[Tinkermommy]

My mil's advice was to join where your friends are, or you won't use it. We wound up joining a pool club instead. That was where all of our friends, and my kids friends gathered. It worked for us.

ITA. If you have friends that belong to a club it becomes part of your social life. If not, it may be harder or near impossible to get into the more exclusive ones. I would think in the DC area, these are more exclusive and private and thus very expensive and harder to get into without help from current members.

Around here we have so many golf/swim/tennis communities that there is now a surplus and they are making deals to get members. Typically, they are waiving the initial fees and the monthly dues are around $200 a year. And our weather is nice enough that the courses are open year round.

We have a pool and tennis courts in our neighborhood and I don't golf (yet, I would love to take lessons some day) and my DH doesn't think he would use it enough because of his work schedule, so we haven't joined any but if you are big into golfing you can get into some nice courses for not much money right now.

 

[golfgal]

You only pay $1800 for a year-round country club, but $50,000 a year for a pool club (which here is a couple tennis courts, a 50 year old pool, and a snack bar, open from memorial day to labor day)? The initial fee for country clubs here is 5 figures, and the annual dues way more than a pool club.

We don't have "pool" clubs around here, I was referring to golf clubs that you have to have a sponsor and be invited to join. There are plenty of golf clubs around here that offer memberships for under $2000 that anyone can join-no invites needed.

 

[mjkacmom]

We don't have "pool" clubs around here, I was referring to golf clubs that you have to have a sponsor and be invited to join. There are plenty of golf clubs around here that offer memberships for under $2000 that anyone can join-no invites needed.

We don't have any clubs like that in the NYC metro area - it's all big $. There are public courses, though.

 

[golfgal]

We don't have any clubs like that in the NYC metro area - it's all big $. There are public courses, though.

I think MN is second to MI with the most golf courses per capita in the US so we have a wide variety of courses to choose from.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

For a social membership, our country club is $3,000 a year, this includes the pool and tennis courts. Plus a $200.00 a month food allowance, which must be paid if you eat that much or not.

I never inquired about a full membership because DH doesn't golf but someone told me once it was around $20,000 a year.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

WHOA!!! Just heard back from the 2nd club I had inquired about.... It's $82,000 for the initiation fee plus $450/month dues....for a non-golf membership it's $45,000 to join plus $405/month in dues. Too much for us!!

 

[brerrabbit]

Ther are so many things to consider when joining a CC. There are different kinds of memberships but also different in the way they operate. CCA (Country Clubs of America) own a lot of clubs and they tend to be reasonably priced and when they need to do capital improvements they come up with the money and it gets reflected in higher dues. The club I was a member of was a privately owned (by the members) and when you joined you got a share of stock in the club. When the membership decided there was a need for a capital improvement they would access the membership a fee. I could be as much as $10,000 dollars per family for big projects. The upside of my club was it was fairly cheap, $1,500 up front and $235 a month with no food and beverage minimum. Nolan Ryan and his wife were members of the club and I actually played several rounds of golf with him. There were plans you could add for different things like a range plan, cart plan, etc that cost extra. The club had a pool, tennis courts and great golf course, casual and more formal dining, and a bar. I really enjoyed it but at some point I could not justify the expense because I really enjoy playing different courses and every time I paid for one of those, I felt I was wasting money. I finally quit because the family never embraced the pool and other facilities and it wound up being just for me to play golf. My game improved dramatically because I practiced a lot which was good but in the end I just did not feel I was getting my money's worth.

If you evaluate a membership purely on price you will almost never join a club. It really needs to be the center of your social world to feel like its worth it.

In Houston prices range from what I paid to a little lower and up to as much as $75,000 to join some. As someone said earlier if you have to ask what it costs you probably should not join.

 

[punkin]

There are two country clubs in my immediate area and I cannot afford one and cannot afford to even look at the prices at the other one.

 

[SaraJayne]

WHOA!!! Just heard back from the 2nd club I had inquired about.... It's $82,000 for the initiation fee plus $450/month dues....for a non-golf membership it's $45,000 to join plus $405/month in dues. Too much for us!!

 

[JVL1018]

We don't have "pool" clubs around here, I was referring to golf clubs that you have to have a sponsor and be invited to join. There are plenty of golf clubs around here that offer memberships for under $2000 that anyone can join-no invites needed.

They are usually called swim clubs here--it's basically the town pool.
Ours is $700 for a bond(refundable if you leave--but you may have to wait years after you give up your membership for the bond to sell) and $600 for dues per year-it's open Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Country clubs are very very high-I have heard 6 figures just to join,and then there are the annual fees.

 

[undertheradar]

We were social members of one that was located in our planned neighnorhood. Invite was extended when you purchased your home. We were paying $105.00 month for social, which included the pool area during summer months, year-round social events. We did not have a minimum but were "encouraged" to use the dining facilities 3 times per year. I hated the mandatory holiday fund charged to member accounts every december. They did have an a-la-carte menu of options for tennis, fitness center, kids activities, golf, range balls, carts, lockers,etc. We found that it started to cost far more than we were receiving in return. I do know that golf memberships started at $7500.00 initiation and $600.00 per month.

 

[AshleyW]

They are usually called swim clubs here--it's basically the town pool.
Ours is $700 for a bond(refundable if you leave--but you may have to wait years after you give up your membership for the bond to sell) and $600 for dues per year-it's open Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Country clubs are very very high-I have heard 6 figures just to join,and then there are the annual fees.

So... is there anything special about these swim clubs? We don't have swim clubs around here, at least not that I'm aware of. We have 6 town pools, they're nice and big with slides and stuff, plus usually a "quiet pool" for adults, concession stands, lockers & showers.. stuff like that. It's $4 to get in and swim for the day. If you buy a season pass (Memorial Day-Labor Day) it's $179 for a family or $87 for an individual pass. Just trying to see what is different between a swim club and our town pools.

 

[mjkacmom]

So... is there anything special about these swim clubs? We don't have swim clubs around here, at least not that I'm aware of. We have 6 town pools, they're nice and big with slides and stuff, plus usually a "quiet pool" for adults, concession stands, lockers & showers.. stuff like that. It's $4 to get in and swim for the day. If you buy a season pass (Memorial Day-Labor Day) it's $179 for a family or $87 for an individual pass. Just trying to see what is different between a swim club and our town pools.

We don't have a town pool, but surrounding towns do. Swim or pool clubs tend to be nicer, and less crowded. The one we used to belong to in our town had all private tables and cabanas - they were yours for the season. Plus there are parties, swim club, crafts, bocce tournaments...