Hey, Larry, Moe and Curly: Country club could be in your future

Public course golfers, and there are more of us than there are of "them," play the game and don't worry much about missing out on the world of private golf.

At public courses with good leadership, a welcoming clubhouse and strong men’s and women’s clubs, course regulars can feel like they belong to a poor man’s country club.

Imagine this: country club as populist institution.

It’s not such a crazy thought.

This economic climate, which would seem intuitively to separate the public golfer even more widely from the country club experience, is having the ironic effect of bringing both sides closer to the middle.

Some private courses are responding to greater or lesser struggles – attrition in the membership base, tepid response to new-member appeals – by reaching out to the public.

What this means for the great unwashed is some private clubs are reducing membership buy-in fees and monthly dues to levels within reach of normal people.

But, more important, they’re opening their courses to some public play.

We reported two weeks ago that Olympia Country and Golf Club is offering a $25 greens fee to non-members who play with a member. The price remains in force through the winter.

Mike McDonald, the president of the OCGC board and a member of the club since 1985, said membership numbers have dropped from about 300 to about 225. He said he hasn’t seen an economy this bad in that quarter century, but the membership fall-off, he believes, is as much societal as economic.

“We’ve always had some attrition,” McDonald said. “People get older and stop playing. The problem is we haven’t been getting new members. Young family men are going to their kids’ soccer games, and there’s been a drop-off in the popularity of golf. Younger people are doing other things.”

For the record: The buy-in at the iconic Olympia club is now at $1,000 for an individual membership. And, in a bid to attract those younger members, the initiation is $500 for new members under 40. Family memberships are also available.

“We definitely want to be accessible,” McDonald said. “It’s a little different experience at a private club. You hope you’ll be treated like you’re not just a number showing up at the course.”

Trish Huff, general manager at the private Indian Summer Golf and Country Club in Olympia, said she’s heard of other private clubs that have lost hundreds of members so she feels blessed that Indian Summer has lost only 20.

When you call up to inquire about an Indian Summer membership, Huff said, you’ll be invited to take a tour. The pro shop will then try to match you up with a member to play the course, which is consistently ranked in the top 10 in Washington.

Indian Summer is offering its usual low-risk membership plan: Put $1,500 down, play the course and pay your dues for a year, then at the end of the year if you want out you can get your buy-in back. If you want in, you pay another $1,500.

Oakbrook Golf & Country Club in Lakewood offers a $25 green fee to non-members between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. It’s part of the club’s “membership enhancement program” through the end of February.

“Oakbrook is so tucked away, we didn’t have a whole lot of community awareness,” said Kara Brevet, manager of Oakbrook.

She said her club actually had one of its best years last year in terms of member retention.

Non-members who book a midday tee time at Oakbrook (a quiet time there, as it is at most clubs) are asked to fill out a card and listen to the membership spiel. Then they get to go out and play the mature Oakbrook layout and experience some of the fastest and best greens in the region.

Brevet, who has worked at Oakbrook for 11 years and has been the manager just short of five years (her father, Bruce Brevet, was the pro there), said Oakbrook has never had a huge initiation fee – the most she’s ever seen was $5,000. And that was just the paper price – there have always been special offers.

Now, the regular price is $2,500, but during the membership drive the buy-in is $500.

Oakbrook’s whole push, Brevet said, is built around getting the word out to the community “that we do have extremely affordable memberships” – and getting a flow of information back. The club has collected close to 500 names and e-mail addresses from prospective members playing the course.

Oakbrook has blunted static from established members who might object to Larry, Moe and Curly on their course by using the cash from outside green fees to reduce monthly dues for members.

McDonald pointed out that the total value of an Olympia membership includes not just golf but a swimming pool, dock and top-rank clubhouse.

“One of the really nice things about OCGC,” he said, “when I joined you could just as easily be playing with the president of the brewery as the guy who worked in maintenance at the brewery. It’s not a snooty club.”

Rest assured there are still private clubs that cherish their exclusivity and accept new members only by invitation at prices that if you have to ask you can’t afford.

But the gulf between public and private golf has narrowed a little bit. It’s all golf, after all, and a little democracy never hurt.

“There’s a country club out there for everybody,” said Brevet, and it is a measure of the times that she said it with a straight face.

Freelance writer Bart Potter can be reached at greygoatee06@comcast.net.