What does your club do to help paying fee's?

[charnockpro]

Like the question says, what does your club do to assist in making your fee's affordable, or is it a case that they arent? and if not what suggestions do you think would be co-beneficial?

We do not have a joining fee at the moment and in your first year you only pay from when you join until the end of year (Dec 31st).

[ThatCanadianGuy]

I'm not sure I really get what your looking for but we offer an installment program.

Dues are paid with 3 post dated cheques dated May 1, June, 1 and July 1.

If they go for some extra things like a locker or club storage that get added to the first cheque.

[Dave Ireland]

Yep we also have a joining fee with the yearly subs pro-rated on when you joined - March you pay 9/12 etc

You can set up a monthly standing order with your bank to pay any amount to be offset against the next year's subs. Works great for me I have to say, no longer have to foot an invoice for a grand 1st week of January

[MCDavis]

No joining fee, pro-rated first year based on when you join, quarterly installments.

[Calhoun]

My club dues are only $1400 yr for living on the course and using my own cart. But to join our club you have to have a share of stock. There are only around 700 shares of stock in existence. The guy I bought my house from last year had two shares and part of the deal of buying the house is that he would throw one in. I think that you can join (golf only with no voting rights) without a share of stock.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Ours had a $5000 initiation fee, that I believe they would allow you to pay over the course of 5 years but it would be a little more costly I believe by choosing that method. We chose to just pay it in one lump some. I do not believe offer such options on the membership, however at $1230 for a single for $2330 a family (just went up 4%), I would not consider those to be real high in taking into consideration the course and what you get for your money.

I would also say the last two course we joined, this one and the last one, offered September through December free on the condition you pay for the first year, which was a nice incentive and is likely pretty common or something I would recommend people to ask about when considering joining any club.

This membership comes in at about 1/2 the cost of a Nicklaus course 2 miles down the street, and was our other consideration at the time. Although personally for my taste in golf course, I like this course better. Although ours is semi-private, and the Nicklaus course went fully private last year, and in doing so I would question whether they are not now more than double the price. They did offer a monthly fee at the time of $365 a month for a couple. Although at the time, they were willing to waive the initiation fees to go private, they normally range between $12,500 and $25,000

[ManchesterGolfer]

Our place use Fairway credit which means you get to pay in 12 installments but have to pay intreast. The only other alternative is to pay the full amount by the end of January. This year was £815 and is alot to fork out after Christmas. I think quarterly payments straight to the club with no intreast would be superb.

[DaveE]

My neighborhood and most of club members are retired. They are a great group who all seem to be interested in keeping dues as low as possible. Several of the retired members volunteer to do everything from trimming trees to mowing greens. If I ever get to retire I can't wait to join them.

We only have two full time employees and a couple of part-time people to fill in.

This year my membership was $380.00.

[charnockpro]

There are quite a few surprising and interesting options,

We used Fairway Credit and they got a bit heavy handed with two of our members when they missed one payment, they work like car finance whereby the club gets paid within a month for the full amount less their commission, it is not a bad idea.

The community club idea sounds awesome and would promote great sense of togetherness whilst keeping cost down.

There are other good ideas, although i am amazed at the cost of membership in the current climate, I was thinking of maybe a savings card idea for our membership for the middle of the year with next years subscriptions in mind because i feel the global credit crunch may put golf fee's way down the list of importance in a family/persons finance.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Another interesting one that may benefit you that one of our local courses will do, and we take advantage of each year.

They offer a booklet for 12 rounds to their course. Which is sold up front for $360. Simply put, $30 a round for what may otherwise be a $40 to $50 round at peak time. It can be used by one person, or by 12 people all at once. It can be used at any time, although their twilight fees are only $29, so we usually will not use them at those times. They don't care how you use them. We usually use it for my wife and I for 6 rounds over the year and have even purchased as many as two over the course of the year. Although last year we had three foresomes go out and bought a book, then just collected $30 a piece for what was otherwise a $45 round at the time. Also anytime we have friends that we go there with, we just get $30 from them and give them the certificate for the round.

It is like a little mini membership, you get the money up front and all it cost you have is the price to print the booklets and discounting the rounds to what you already may do through other offers, which in this case was probably fairly cheap and simply stapled together the the number they register when you purchase the booklet. No membership contract, no hassles, just pay the money and get the booklet. You figure you get the money up front, and I likely earn the equivalent of a couple free rounds over the course of that time, and if I want to bring 3 foursomes to your course one day, then we both make or save money.

It seems like a nice option, and one that is good for people who do not play there every week, but will play 12 rounds between either themselves or friends over the course of the year.

edit 1 - also from another perspective on this, in all likelihood we may play this course more than any other 2nd course. Basically after we get the coupons, on a weekly basis we look at it as a free round compared to another secondary course. So we likely play there more than we otherwise would, just like with the primary membership to our home course. It's paid for already, why go somewhere else. Then you have our one friend, bought a booklet, played one round, then moved away from the area.