[John Kavanaugh]

If you travel a lot outpost provides amazing opportunity.  The key is making time to Take advantage.  The home course Chechessee is just fantastic.  Very quiet looking but a devil of a treat to play.  Hospitality at the 2 venues I've been to has been great.  Both C &C btw. 

I just want to make this clear because I have already said too much.  The Outpost will be successful and a win/win for its members and the clubs if they go back in the shadows.  No member/guests, no weekend outings and no bragging on the internet about how joining gets you on two C&C courses. 

What would a guy who is considering joining Friars Head or Old Sandwich going to think?

[Mark Chaplin]

John - there are around 2000 golf courses in GB&I I guess less than 100 of them draw a significant income from tourists (home or overseas).
The percentage in England and Wales will also be less than Scotland and Ireland.
 

[Sean_A]

Mike

Your comments promted me to look at the Yale membership info.  Why do you spose they allow non-Yale affiliation membership?  

Ciao

Sure, just send me an email. After looking at Joe's recently sent Yale pics, I might get a second membership in case they get tired of me:


http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Yale/index.html

Mike

We had some sort of disconnect.  Why does Yale offer a non-affiliation membership?  I would think this is fairly rare for uni courses.

JakaB

So now you want Muirfield to put a discalimer on their website to the effect of "sure we accept visitors, but only because visitors drastically reduce the subs for members."  I would think anybody with half a brain knows this, but I would also say there is a long tradtion of noblesse oblige in the UK which started in the days before vistor money was in any real way meaningful.  Its only been in the past 30 years that clubs figured out how to rape Americans while still smiling.  I dare say much of that money flowing from west to east is down to the fact that so many American clubs are uptight about visitors.  This is likely one of the few times where supposedly saaaavy Americans were beaten to the punch in many a year.  No worries though, its lovely to sit in the house and look at an empty course while thinking "I could have a game - if I wanted to."

Ciao

[John Kavanaugh]

Sean,

I have so many opinions that it is impossible for me to defend them all.  I reserve the right to change my mind and hereby declare happiness for all courses who accept unaccompanied guests.  I will go so far to say, as I have before, there are less than a dozen private courses left in the world.  You win, golf wins, the clubs win, its a win/win/win.

[Mike_Young]

IMHO I think the last few years have proven that exclusivity has to be earned and cannot be purchased .....if exclusivity loses it's value then it loses it's very being....
The idea is good....but not for everyone....but nice guys so good luck.....

[Brent Hutto]

IMHO I think the last few years have proven that exclusivity has to be earned and cannot be purchased...

Well nowadays it often can be "earned" at retail. Sometimes even wholesale. Occasionally even discounted.

But not "purchased", no never.

[Jud_T]

for the sake of the Outpost Club members, I sincerely hope that their experience with time-shares turns out significantly better than mine over the medium term...

[John Kavanaugh]

For the first time in my life I am considering a Disney time share.  At least I'm not yet old enough to buy and extended warranty.

[Mike Sweeney]

Sorry about the big picture above but here is a better link to Joe's Yale album.

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/yale/

Sean,

Like most golf clubs, things have been relaxed these days at collegiate course. To my knowledge, the concept of "university affiliation" is fairly loose at Yale, Cornell, Colgate and The Orchards (Mt Holyoke). I originally got in on an "Ivy League" reciprocal agreement, but I fear even JC Jones and MSU could make the cut list IF he had a very nice sponsor!  

PS. Boston College just lost to Harvard for the third time in a row in basketball, so the world is upside down right now.  

[Colin Sheehan]

As one of the three founders of the Outpost Club, I have no intention of using this website/forum to promote it. And 11 months on, we haven't made any effort to do so. Anyone is free to pm me with any questions.

I do wish to quickly clarify a few details. Sean Arble could not have better hit the nail on the head. The club is modeled after the British golfing societies. While we do offer "limited playing privileges" to a number of architecturally significant private clubs around the country, the privileges never compete with a club's regular or non-resident membership options. We again are simply borrowing a tried and tested aspect of British golf: limited, special-occasion unaccompanied play at the club's discretion, meaning when there might be available inventory. Our partner clubs have a willingness to receive our members because we promise to send vetted, sophisticated golfers--many are members of great private clubs of their own--who play quickly, prefer to walk, take caddies if available, treat the course with respect and are grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a reputable, well-designed course. But mostly, the Outpost Club is about the events, of which we have over 40 on the calendar for 2011. They come in all shapes and sizes: medals (like the Summer and Captain's Medals), foursomes, fourball, Stableford, knock-outs, member-guests, pro-members, parent-child, dinner matches (eight v eights), and non-golf events, notably the annual Winter Meeting in February in NYC's Union Square. These events allow society members from all across the country and from various clubs to interact and get to know each other--forming the relationships and friendships that are so unique to the world of golf.

Happy New Year, everyone.  

[JMEvensky]

 Our partner clubs have a willingness to receive our members because we promise to send vetted, sophisticated golfers--many are members of great private clubs of their own--who play quickly, prefer to walk, take caddies if available, treat the course with respect and are grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a reputable, well-designed course.   

All due respect and apologies for taking this comment out of the entire post.

However,the reason for clubs' willingness to host is the cash you provide--period,paragraph.Hiring caddies,playing quickly,and saying thanks are irrelevant.You're providing revenue to the clubs that they can't get from their own memberships.

The question is whether your guest fees will outweigh the lost monthly dues  if/when enough members take offense to the arrangement and resign.As John Kavanaugh said above,some members will sit home rather than play the rube.

[Terry Lavin]

As one of the three founders of the Outpost Club, I have no intention of using this website/forum to promote it. And 11 months on, we haven't made any effort to do so. Anyone is free to pm me with any questions.

This is beyond commendable, IMHO.

[Jerry Kluger]

At my club we do have outings from outside groups and I can tell you that while they do bring in much needed revenue, they also leave much to be desired in so far as how they treat the course.  Unfortunately, we are not in a position to be choosy about it but I would think that some of the clubs that allow Outpost members at their course would quickly cut off the relationship if they did not follow the guidelines which Colin stated are mandatory for members. I do not see it as much different from some prestigious clubs which charge extremely high guest fees simply because they can get it. 

[Tom Roewer]

The Outpost Club will only be as strong as it's weakest member. This thread is the beginning of the end. Please have it deleted before it is too late.

  thanks john  agree totally

[John Shimp]

To JMEvensky,
If all they care about is cash with zero concern for 'quality control" and the clubs are willing to risk their membership's satiisfaction to get that cash the clubs would just open their doors wider and become public.  There is more to it than what your demonstrative post suggests.  That said, cash is important to these clubs.  The great British clubs have not been ruined or run off their membership by allowing unaccompanied guest play and qualified societies.  

[JMEvensky]

To JMEvensky,
If all they care about is cash with zero concern for 'quality control" and the clubs are willing to risk their membership's satiisfaction to get that cash the clubs would just open their doors wider and become public.  There is more to it than what your demonstrative post suggests.  That said, cash is important to these clubs.  The great British clubs have not been ruined or run off their membership by allowing unaccompanied guest play and qualified societies.  

The British comparison doesn't exist.That template is off-limits to member owned clubs due to the limit of outside revenue they can have and maintain a preferred tax status.

I didn't say that clubs didn't care about quality control--only that it's irrelevant to the clubs' willingness to sell tee times to Outpost.

Member "satisfaction" is the real question.Presumably,the clubs who've made these deals,have balanced the added revenue against the membership's aggravation and the added revenue won.I might assume that other clubs were approached with the same deal and came to a different decision.

Ultimately,a club's Board must walk the increasingly fine line of non-member revenue vs. privateness.Every club's membership has their own idea of where this line exists.The wild card is just how far can a Board go without finding themselves winning a battle but losing the war?The dues line will always be more important than outside revenue.It doesn't take many resignations to trump any amount of non-member green fees.

The above said,I didn't mean to come off as snarky as I did.I apologize to Colin Sheehan.

[John Kirk]

As one of the three founders of the Outpost Club, I have no intention of using this website/forum to promote it. And 11 months on, we haven't made any effort to do so. Anyone is free to pm me with any questions.

I do wish to quickly clarify a few details. Sean Arble could not have better hit the nail on the head. The club is modeled after the British golfing societies. While we do offer "limited playing privileges" to a number of architecturally significant private clubs around the country, the privileges never compete with a club's regular or non-resident membership options. We again are simply borrowing a tried and tested aspect of British golf: limited, special-occasion unaccompanied play at the club's discretion, meaning when there might be available inventory. Our partner clubs have a willingness to receive our members because we promise to send vetted, sophisticated golfers--many are members of great private clubs of their own--who play quickly, prefer to walk, take caddies if available, treat the course with respect and are grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a reputable, well-designed course. But mostly, the Outpost Club is about the events, of which we have over 40 on the calendar for 2011. They come in all shapes and sizes: medals (like the Summer and Captain's Medals), foursomes, fourball, Stableford, knock-outs, member-guests, pro-members, parent-child, dinner matches (eight v eights), and non-golf events, notably the annual Winter Meeting in February in NYC's Union Square. These events allow society members from all across the country and from various clubs to interact and get to know each other--forming the relationships and friendships that are so unique to the world of golf.

Happy New Year, everyone.  

Colin and I have met a couple times.

Colin, I'm just blowing off a little steam.  I'm not mad at the Outpost Club at all.  It's a great idea, perfect for the traveling golfer.   If I weren't so full up on memberships, I'd apply in a heartbeat.  I wish you great success.


 

[John Kirk]

Also, a previous comment hinted at exclusivity.

The greatest gift I have received in my last few years of golf has been the ability to play these outstanding courses in relative isolation, with so few players on the course.  Also, I joined early enough in a couple cases that I was able to witness the construction of the course up close.

It's been perhaps the greatest luxury of my life.

[Mike Hendren]

Bump.

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