Finally pulled the plug
 

Made the call today and resigned our country club membership. I was playing golf there about twice a week, and the course just eats my lunch. It's a US Open qualifier site and I find the course just too difficult for my level of skill. Golf there has just stopped being fun for me, partly because I will be turning 65 in 2 months, with a loss of distance and short game skills, but also because I just don't like playing this course. As a social member, I'm currently paying $ 63 a round , so it's not like I'm playing on the cheap. I plan on join another local course for $100 amd about $30 a round on a course much more suitable for my game.

Anyone else run into this same issue?

may be a stupid question but what is the benefit of being a member of one club? I pay normally arround $30 per round at any number of courses without being a member and that gives me more of a variety and keeps the game more iinteresting IMO.

There are a lot of benifits of belonging to one club. It can be simply that you like the course enough to want to play it more than others. I have friends that joined a club because it has swimming pools, tennis courts, restaurant, and a lot of activities for his family and kids. A lot of his friends are members there so they play golf together, and he also uses it for business connections as well. We play at his course every now and then but we also play at several other courses in the area too.

Just because you belong to a club doesn't mean you have to play all your golf there.

Like Craig said there can be a lot of benefits, along with it can be cheaper joining in the long run at the course you play the most. The club I joined this year worked out cheaper because I played it the most, however I still played on 7 or 8 other courses this year.

I would join just for the practice facilities. It would also be nice to be able to just show up and play 9 whenever you want. Plus the poker games in the bars or on the patio. The one Im always a visitor at has all of those and really good food. I would join but its just not close enough.

But the OP seemed to say that he pays $63 in addition to the membership fee. At least that how it reads to me. So I would question that too... http://www.thehackersparadise.com/fo.../confused2.gif

I figured he meant since he is only playing twice a week, his rounds are costing $63 each. If he played more his rounds would cost less based on whatever his membership is, or if he just played once a week it would be $126. Or that's the way I saw it! If it's the other way, that's crazy!

I just started to play golf, but being a member does seem to have it's perks. I would stop a membership if I wasn't having fun though. I would think you would want your home course to be one of theose courses you can just relax and have fun. So I think moving membership to another club would seem like a logical thing todo.

Just because you belong to a club doesn't mean you don't pay any fees. Most private club memberships have cart fees in addition to your monthly dues. My club I can either pay an annual cart fee that covers my cart for the whole year, or I can choose to pay for a cart each time I golf, minimal $12 I think it is, I chose the annual since I golf a lot. My club has a very active men's club, so that is the reason I chose to join my club and I also live on the golf course. Our men's club has a men's only tournament every other Sat., we have Friday happy hour 9 hole tournaments every Friday from Feb-Nov, we have a member-member(both women/men) tournament every other month and then we also have couples golf every month, in addition to the club championship tournament, the member-guest tournament and a couple others throughout the year. So if you like to play tournaments and enjoy the camaraderie from the men's club then the small fee every month is definitely worth it, if you enjoy playing golf by yourself or just in your usual foursome then joining a club may not be for you. I myself am a member of my club where I play around 8 rounds a month, I play the tournaments which are about another 4rounds a month, I play with my friends at their clubs which is about 4-8 rounds a month, I play in our USGA sanctioned tournaments once a month and we also travel to other courses and play them also just to get out and play somewhere different.

At the moment i am a member at 2 clubs both of which only have golf courses and a little practice area,no swimming pool,no health club etc. The reason that i am a member of the 2 is down to work and geographical location.

Both clubs have a great group of members and both courses play very differently,so far it works for me.http://www.thehackersparadise.com/fo...ies/act-up.png

If he's paying that kind of money and he's a member, money's no object.

I don't think I'll be paying my membership dues for 2010 either, it just doesn't seem like the savings over paying the regular green fees will be worth it this year.