[Bill_McBride]

Several private clubs have gone belly up in NoCal, be careful!

Tim, those are all pretty far outside the immediate Bay Area, right?

[TX Golf]

Yea Bill,

All of those courses are a decent ways outside of the Bay Area. All are probably at least an hour and a half to two hour drive from the Oakland/SF area.

[Bill_McBride]

Yea Bill,

All of those courses are a decent ways outside of the Bay Area. All are probably at least an hour and a half to two hour drive from the Oakland/SF area.

So it's a low population issue?

When I lived and worked in the Bay Area (1968-1978, before that I was in college or away in the Navy), you couldn't think of joining a private club unless you were really upper crust.  It wasn't until I moved to other parts of the country that I could afford to belong to a private club.  I suspect that's still true of the close in clubs.  The population fringes are where the problems are and that's probably true all over the country.

This would not be a good time to join a financially insecure club, as the membership growth will be slowing now across the board, and that will mean assessments for operating deficits rather than capital projects.  That's recipe for unhappiness.

[David_Tepper]

Bill -

The courses that Tim L. has cited are mostly east of Sacramento up to Auburn. That is an area that has had a large population growth in the past 10-20 years and (too) many new courses have been built there.

Here in the immediate Bay Area, Mira Vista CC (the Willie Watson courses in north Berkeley) has been running adverts in the SF Chronicle offering membership for a $7,000 initiation fee, which is VERY cheap for this part of the world.

My guess is memberships at Richmond CC are also available for under $20,000.

DT

[Jeff Shelman]

Played in an interclub match yesterday at a club down the road from mine. It's short, but fun. They could lose about 100 trees, but have great greens and a fun membership.

There was something in the carts about their current promotion. $3,500 to join and no dues/minimums until January. If you joined with someone else, it was $2,500 each for initiation.

[Brad Fleischer]

Also have been pondering this subject myself. I live in staten island and the golf is slim pickings. Spend most of my time traveling 45 min to nj for most of my rounds. I wish I could find a nice little gem that wont cost me a house to join. Unfortunately I live in the worst place for golf. All three publics are cow pastures. Now Bayonne golf club would be ideal. Probably take ten min to get there. So when you get the emails asking for a donation to the HELP ME JOIN a club fundraiser it will be your money well spent. I only need 500,000 haahah. On a serious note if anyone has a nice little gem they would like to share with me let me know.

[Mitch Hantman]

David,

Just when are you joining Mira Vista?  Is it before or after the Dow Jones passes 15,000?

[W.H. Cosgrove]

What's the proper way to ask for an evaluation round? Just call up the pro shop?

Call the Club Manager or Office.  The pro thinks you're looking for a hand out and the manager thinks your raw meat.

[TX Golf]

Mitch.... you must of meant 1,500..... right

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