Rick--
Your prediction is a little mis-guided. I think he'll have no problems dramatically increasing the membership and here's why: I was a member there for four years and put my resignation in earlier this year. What drove this was simple--after prepaying our 2009 dues, Empire Golf decided May 1st to remove any of the benefits of being a member--i.e., they made the course 100% public again. After years of empty promises to the members, many of us (I'd guess 40-50) had finally had enough and put in our resignations effective the end of this year. Why bother paying 6k in dues when you could walk up anytime and plunk down $80 to play? Even worse, why would anyone NEW join??? It had gotten so pathetic that many of us were telling people NOT to join!
So with all of that, many of us had either joined or were in the process of joining other clubs. I'm also a member at Tavistock, several of my friends went to Rolling Green, some to Little Mill, Philly Cricket, TPC JP, etc. Well guess what--now that ownership has changed, and as of yesterday the course is 100% private, nearly all of us have or will be reactivating our memberships--even as a second club. I suspect that many more will do this. The architecture can be debated (i happen to think the course is a great, fun members course), but the people there were fantastic and they always deserved better than penny-pinching Empire Golf--it's truly a great place to play golf, hang out, have a drink, etc.
This is a great thing for golf--I have zero respect for the way Empire Golf does business or serves their customers. And my experiences at other Trump properties (Bedminster, Briarcliff) have been first-class all the way. After speaking with the Director of Golf at Pine Hill (now Trump National-Philly), he's really excited as is the entire staff. Trump's going to shut the place down for a few months, reconfigure the clubhouse, locker room, and tweak the golf course, practice area, etc., I'm really looking forward to it in 2010.