The Country Club Arms Race Adds Perks (And Fees) Beyond Golf. Is It Worth the Expense?

Golf carts parked at a golf club, Palm Springs, California.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The country club image seems to have been cemented in 1980, the year Caddyshack was released: Old money vs new, old school vs irreverent.

Clubs can seem stuffy with their rules and their exclusivity, and prior to 2020, they were struggling, with membership enrollments and golf participation both down.

Then the pandemic happened, and golf became a winner based on its ability to get people outside and socialize.

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Last year, the National Golf Foundation reported 28.1 million people played golf on a course, including 3.3 million beginners, the fifth-straight year that number exceeded 3 million.

As a result of this boom in participation, country club rosters swelled, waitlists were formed, and, in some cases, it has taken years — not months — to matriculate through to full memberships.

Before the pandemic, attrition rates at U.S. country clubs averaged 8% to 10%, Jason Becker of Golf Life Navigators told Kiplinger. During the current boom, that slowed to 3% to 4%, he said, although there are signs we're returning to more normal patterns as those waitlists are thinning.

As clubs have grown, the industry has seen many changes. While golf itself continues to be a membership driver (no pun intended), clubs have diversified their offerings and amenities to appeal to the whole family — not just with pickleball, which grew at a clip of 4,000 new courts last year.

What amenities are becoming more common, and how can you figure out if a membership is worth the price?

New features coming to a golf club near you

Clubs now feature cold plunges, simulator rooms with golf and F1 racing, art studios and maker labs that provide hands-on exploration. There are even work lounges and dog parks at some clubs. All of this speaks to what David Pillsbury of Invited Clubs, one of the country's largest club operators, says is clubs' desire to capture the whole family.

"I've said for a long time, our real competition is the home. Our job is to get the whole family to say, 'Let's meet at the club,' and then we have enough to attract everybody to the club for them to do that," he told Kiplinger.

What country clubs are offering now goes well beyond better workout equipment and physical spaces. It includes increased programming offerings, as well. Ray Cronin of Club Benchmarking says clubs understand these changes are the key to both membership retention and growth.

"The arms race is very real, but it will come down to who has the vision to move beyond shiny objects to what truly moves people," he said.

Country clubs as 'third places'

What's moving people these days are clubs that serve as a member's "third place." If home is your "first place" and work is your "second," the third place serves as a location of social connection and informality, where community and connection are built.

That means adult social events with craft cocktails, group exercise classes buttressed by personal training sessions — and ensuring the kids are taken care of with specific kids' zone activities, such as on-site camping. Every facet of today's club is meant to increase one’s sense of belonging.

“The pandemic reminded every one of us that what’s most important is human connection,” says Pillsbury. “But it’s not just with your family, but with your microcommunity,” which country clubs are intentionally building.

A father kneels on the golf course, repositioning a golf ball as he instructs his kindergarten aged daughter on how to putt.

He believes country club memberships offer a way for like-minded individuals to find one another as well, a shortcut for those moving to new places to make connections faster, playing into the newfound work mobility culture.

Cronin concurs, saying successful clubs focus on "purpose, presence and programming."

Becker adds that a lot of the shifts we're seeing in the private club space — and a definite departure from the Caddyshack world of yore — has been the influx of women members into club leadership roles.

In Florida, he knows of two private clubs where ladies' golf leagues, long an afterthought at many clubs, "completely dominate the men's league and men's programming."

He added that these trends are implicitly saying, "We want our families to come here, and in order to do that, we need kid-friendly pools and dog parks."

How can you tell if a golf club membership is worth it?

When it comes to looking for a club to join and assessing its value, Jim Butler, CEO of Club Benchmarking, says you have to look beyond the numbers. The average initiation fee at a private country club these days is around $65,000, with monthly membership fees hovering around $1,000.

After those numbers, Butler emphasizes a couple of common-sense points that are often overlooked: "Make sure the club offers amenities you want to use and they're available when you want to use them."

If you like to work out in the morning and the facility is packed at that time, you're going to be frustrated.

If you want to play golf at certain times of day during the week, ensure those tee times are available.

Increasingly, men don't take the weekend to golf, choosing instead to keep family time a priority, and club programming and tee times are beginning to reflect this shift in behavior.

A woman in colorful clothes puts at a golf course.

All the experts I spoke with say you need to investigate a club's financial model and plans for its physical plant and amenities.

Large club operators such as Invited will make high financial investments in their clubs and carry that burden, whereas member-owned equity clubs will likely see members get an assessment to carry those costs. Those assessments can often be significant four- and five-figure numbers.

A larger club management company such as Invited can carry the upfront costs for large-scale renovations without such assessments but will pass some of those costs on in the form of higher monthly dues, which is often more manageable for members, Pillsbury says.

He says any member or potential member needs "to ensure there is a capital plan that delivers on the quality and amenities you want."

Increasingly, we're seeing an odd juxtaposition in the marketplace with private clubs trying to become more like resorts, adding spas and larger pool complexes, and resorts trying to become more like private clubs, offering exclusive benefits.

As a result, to those that can afford either, there has been greater investment in the physical spaces that help drive demand and increase costs, both in initiation fees and monthly dues.

But it's often a price many are willing to pay. As Pillsbury says, "After all, joining a club is about improving your quality of life."

Michael Croley's reporting, essays, and stories have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and periodicals, including Esquire, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Golfer’s Journal, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, The Paris Review, Switchyard and elsewhere.