COMMUNITY

I do not belong anywhere, often thought of it as getting tied down to one course and for me you'd have to play alot just so you'll make the membership pay for itself.
Most clubs in my area are to high priced to justify the joining since I play so little.
I like to play different places when able and always go for the discounted rates from golfnow or some other golf site.

I have a membership at a local course and I dont have to pay a thing. My boss bought a corprate membership about a year ago. It allows everyone in the company to walk for free and pay $6 per 9 to ride a cart. It also gives us playing rights to 6 or 7 other courses for the same cart fee. All of them are really nice courses but some are almost 2 hours away so I have never played them. So if I play two rounds a week every week of the year it would cost me about $1300 pre year to ride but I walk about every other round so it is actually about half that.

You have a good deal going, but the benifits outway everything when it comes down to it with a membership IF it's a good club. The one I am in is only 50 a month. Free gollf if you walk, otherwise pay the cartfee's. You also have the advantage of the member/member tourny's, club championship tourny's, and many other event's throughout the year, swimming pool, tennis court, driving range, and best of all OPEN BAR and free eats at all the member events, I have also found out that if you are int networking. Playing in member event's is also a good way to meet people that know someone that know someone or might be someone that can help you out in the future.

I've been a member for about 2 years now, and for the most part it has been a wise choice. If you get to play often enough to equalize the monthly dues vs. paying public fee prices each time, then it's a no-brainer, because you also get unlimited practice time.

Now the club I belong to is owned by ClubCorp. ClubCorp owns a LOT of private non-equity clubs, so you can enjoy the benefits of private membership without having to pay to own a portion of the club. Also, if you belong to one ClubCorp course, you can play any other one you choose, as long as you make prior arrangements (you can't just walk on like you would at your own club). So you can STILL get the benefit of playing multiple courses (sometimes you may have to pay a cart fee).

Atlanta has 6 ClubCorp courses: Bear's Best, Country Club of Gwinnett, Country Club of the South, Eagle's Landing, Laurel Springs, and Northwood. I'm not sure what the dues are at any of those but it's worth looking into.

Just from my experience, here are the benefits I've noticed from belonging to a club:

- Courses are well-maintained throughout the year (even during this awful drought this year, our superintendent has kept the course looking pretty dang nice).
- Play is much faster as a rule...an average round for me is 3 hours, walking. Even during busy times I've never gone over 4 hours.
- Tee times are easier to secure, and it's also easy to just walk up and grab a time without even calling ahead.
- If your round is going sour, you can always abort the mission and go back to the range without feeling like you wasted a greens fee.
- By the same token, if you want, you can play just 3 or 4 quick holes before or after work...you don't have to play a full round.
- You're likely to make some good regular golfing buddies!
- The level of play is likely to be a little on the better side...you'll usually find more good players at a private club.
- Unlimited use of the practice facilities.
- Member-only deals on clubs and apparel in the pro shop.
- If it's a ClubCorp course that you join, you get the freedom to play other ClubCorp courses as long as you make prior reservations...this also works with clubs (and ClubCorp-partnered hotels) outside your hometown, which makes travel pretty easy.
- Of course, all the other amenities, like tennis, swimming pool, food, etc.

Just some stuff to think about!