Crestwood Country Club

Have never walked around the course but looks very nice as a driveby.

Their new deal is fantastic. $2500 for a single membership. $3250 for an AB membership. Includes practice facility, pool, etc. And no minimums, fees, etc. Social membership for $1000/$1500 allows play 3x month.

So here’s the bad news: apparently the members are unhappy with course problems due to damage from this summer’s weather and big assessments to come. Their practice facility appears heavily used and is often closed. Current members are paying a lot more than the above deal (the deal is only one year). Right now they’re letting the public play (though you need an MGA/RIGA card) for the rest of the year. Not good signs.

Would like some intel on course/membership conditions if anyone has any.

As a note, their deal was 3000/3500 in the spring and normal price from my notes is 4500 single and 6800 family.

Valley Country Club

With the economy and the recent state of things, Rhode Island is facing the same crunch as private golf courses around the country.

The focus is Valley Country Club which filed for bankruptcy on March 23. The Projo’s article is a good one. The primary factor is excessive debt from modernization. With a $5.1 million debt load, they really need 300+ members at 4K/year to keep the club afloat. Unfortunately, they’re at 250 and falling. The Projo and article comments point to a decline in membership due to assessments. At 4K/year, they’re right in line with the other midrange private facilities, so it’s pretty hard to recover members. I’ll talk about basic country club economics in a future post but the short of it is that there is very little room to maneuver with that type of debt load. With no pool, tennis, or driving range it is very hard to get the traffic to keep a clubhouse of this caliber breaking even.

Right now, they have a 2010 season membership for $2000, which is an outstanding deal. However, ownership will almost certainly pass to Centreville Bank which holds a $4.5m note. Hopefully the land is protected from development — otherwise it will be houses. As a semiprivate course, it’s probably worth $3-4m if development is not possible. Clubhouses aren’t worth nearly what they cost, but there would be some value as a banquet facility. Reequitization is highly unlikely (who’s going to pay a 10K initiation/stock fee in this environment?). If they can get membership up, wipe out the other debt through bankruptcy, and there are no good offers for the course, they might be able to reset dues to $3250 and be competitive in the long term.

Though they have their work stacked up: very hard to run a club when new members are paying 2K instead of 4K/year. Many new members will be interlopers there for a one year great deal and then move on. Bankruptcy is terrible for the weddings and events business (see for example Georgetown Country Club near Boston).

A possible play would be for a strong club to buy them as a second golf course and acquire 50-100 members in the process. No good candidates though.

Wanumetonomy G&CC

A nice course near Middletown. The only accessible private course on Aquidneck Island. Green Valley nearby sells (not cheap) memberships but they’re mainly for volume discounts or peak weekend morning access. Montaup has a very long waiting list and is increasingly public. There’s some outings availability if you want to give the course a try.

Pros: Location, Private.

Cons: Short, tight. No range.

Cost: Requires stock purchase on open market (6-8K) + 8K initiation fee. Steep dining minimum ($75/month single, $150/month family) but only 6 months/yr.

Carts=$16/round
Single (20rds) = $183/round
Single (40rds) = $100/round
Family (40+20) = $113/round

Stock plans are the way to go. They give initiation fee recovery without the problems during a down market due to “fairness” issues. They cap membership without lengthy waiting lists since stock value rises to adjust supply and demand. Wanumetonomy is fairly steep but not unreasonable for island dwellers and summer residents.

Fall River Country Club

Fall River Country Club is worth a look. It is in a pretty isolated waterfront location in the north part of Fall River. A very scenic, historic course and well-maintained. Nice but dated clubhouse. Not too bad for those coming from south of Boston and very convenient for much of Rhode Island.

Pros:

No tee times.

Very welcoming to walkers. Plenty of room at nonpeak times.

Quality of golf course

Cons:

On weekends they dual-teeoff on #1 and #10. Once your group of 3 registers you receive a scorecard. Hard to tell how unfriendly this is to singles and pairs in practice, but certainly not welcoming.

Many, many summer weekends are dominated by club tournaments and events of various sorts. Good way to handle high demand for prime weekend tee times, but not so good if you’re not the tournament type.

High food minimum ($70 single, $95 family) 12 months/year.

Locker room reminded me of high school with small metal lockers. Clubhouse as a whole shows age.

No range and none nearby. Don’t invite your hack friends. The practice green is only open from 6-8AM and after 6PM daily. What’s the point?

 
Price:
Carts=$17/round.
Single (20 rounds) = $178/round
Single (40 rounds) = $98/round
Family (40+20 rounds) = $96/round
There is a significant ($360/year) maintenance fee listed on the website but not in their membership brochure. Either poor website maintenance or a misleading brochure.

I came very close to joining this club a few years ago and paying the initiation fee (at the time $3000), but never heard back from the membership committee on a query. Then things changed at work and I waited until next year. If their food minimum was eliminated (even if that meant ending dinner service and less formal lunch) I think they’d be a very popular course.

The Beginning

Hi — For various reasons, I’ve been collecting information on various private golf courses in Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts as well as the industry as a whole. I thought others might find some of my analysis useful and hopefully this weblog will generate some discussion and intel for those considering joining (or leaving) one.

-JES