The Detroit golf club market has taken a huge hit. There are some unbeleivable bargains now, not surprisingly.
Still, some of the clubs you are talking about are not realistic targets for any casual new resident.
Franklin Hills is a very small-membership, Jewish club. There is very little guest play. An invitation to FHCC is a rare pleasure indeed. The food and service are extraordinary. Membership is very pricey, and very much by invitation only. Don't hold your breath. FHCC is nearly recession-proof.
CC of Detroit is the Grosse Pointe Farms equivalent of Franklin Hills. While FHCC is a remarkable Ross jewell, CCD is a remarakble H.S. Colt jewel. In the past, new members at CCD had to wait 5 years in many cases before they were granted full golf priveleges. Again, a guest invitation is rare. A membership invitation is extraordinarily rare.
There are memberships available at OHCC, I think, but they are not begging for new members. Although they slashed the $100k+ downstroke by tens of thousands recently.
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There are some really nice places to play -- great old-line golf clubs with good memberships that have really taken a hit with the automotive and especially the auto-supplier downturn. Real bargains right now, and clubs that should be looked into by anyone seriously interested in quality golf clubs:
Detroit Golf Club (36 holes, remarkable high-quality playing membership. North Course is a fine, if grossly altered, Donald Ross layout. South course is a shortish, Par-68 unaltered Ross gem.)
Western Golf & CC (Another of the many Ross designs in the area. A good course and a very friendly memebership; almost as convenient to downtown Detroit as DGC.)
Plum Hollow (A very tasty Alison design, hosted several PGA events in the 1950's. Used to be a huge hangout for Detroit pro athletes. Similar to Western.)
Essex Golf & CC (In Ontario, across the Detroit River. Wonderful Canadian-American mixed membership. Hosted one of the best-ever Canadian Opens in 1976, when Jerry Pate dueled with Jack Nicklaus to win.)
Dearborn CC (Tucked into an incredibly convenient corner of a nice part of Dearborn - close to Detroit and the airport. Nice parkland course; Donald Ross was the putative architect, and while nice, there isn't a lot of classic Ross here.)
Red Run Golf Club (In Royal Oak, which is one of the more fun Detroit suburbs. Another very nice parkland layout, site of the 1958 Western Open.)
Meadowbrook CC (In the western suburb of Northville, with very nice surroundings. The club's website says that Class A memberships are still going for $56,000. I didn't expect that in these times, but that is what memberships at all of these clubs would normally rate in good economic times.)
Washtenaw Country Club (In the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area; a lot of transplants to southeast Michigan like that area.)
Clubs that I think are probably out of reach of all but those with extraordinary incomes:
Birmingham CC (I think BCC's superintendent is a GCA member (!?), but in any case, this is an exceedingly nice club in what might be the finest real estate location in town. BCC's been badly hurt in the recession, and they want new members, but the price of Class A membership is still out of reach for all but a very few. A shortish golf course with varying connections/claims to W. Reid and/or Ross heritage.)
Orchard Lake CC (See Birmingham CC. Another superb true country club with sailing, competitive swimming, etc. A very good golf course with notoriously fast greens and superb conditioning on an architecurally unremarkable layout. The superintendent years ago was a GCSAA President.)
Bloomfield Hills CC (See, Birmingham and Orchard Lake, only moreso. Another shortish, nicely finished golf course that traces its original nine holes to Tom Bendelow, the current layout to H.S. Colt, with revisions claimed to Ross, R.T. Jones and Art Hills. I expect that neither Birmingham, OLCC, BHCC, nor perhaps even Meadowbrook are what you have in mind. BHCC is, along with CCD, FHCC, OLCC and OHCC, the uber-elite of Detroit Golf Clubs.)
Again, the great bargains in Detroit clubs (and they really are amazing bargains right now) are the clubs that were the stomping grounds for all of the sales reps for the thousands of Michigan auto suppliers -- In order of general golf course quality, clubhouse amenities and club memebership, I'd rate them:
Detroit Golf Club
Plum Hollow Golf Club
Essex Golf & Country Club (Ontario, Canada)
Dearborn CC
Red Run Golf Club
Western Golf & Country Club
Washtenaw CC
There are others -- Forest Lake CC and Pine Lake CC in the northwest suburbs, Lochmoor in the Grosse Pointes, and the superb Indianwood (host to several U.S. Womens Opens) in the far northern suburbs. Except for the remarkable Indianwood, these clubs don't compare, in terms of the course quality or the exceptional value now offered by the old, Detroit area golf clubs. They are more for families in those areas wanting traditional full range country clubs.
Again, somebody who has Franklin Hills and the Country Club of Detroit on a short list of clubs to join hasn't thought much about it. It is a little like moving to Los Angeles and saying that you don't think you have the means for Riviera, but you have Bel Air and LACC on a short list of clubs you might like to join. Or like moving to Westchester County New York and saying that while Winged Foot might be out of your reach, you are thinking about joining Old Oaks, or Quaker Ridge. Not.