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Country clubs cut fees to lure more members

Economy puts golf courses in the rough .

Ron Alvey Brian Warniment cleans golf clubs belonging to Walnut Grove Country Club members. Staff photo by Ron Alvey

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Susan Strong and her husband, Bob Pohl, eat lunch Thursday, April 23, at Dayton Country Club in Oakwood. Staff photo by Chris Stewart

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Susan Strong and her husband, Bob Pohl, eat lunch Thursday, April 23, at Dayton Country Club in Oakwood. Staff photo by Chris Stewart

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Herman Oberkrom, a resident of Beavercreek, hits a shot toward the ninth green of Walnut Grove Country Club on Thursday, April 23. Oberkrom and his wife, Ruth, have been members at the club for 12 years. Staff photo by Ron Alvey

Ron Alvey Herman Oberkrom, a resident of Beavercreek, hits a shot toward the ninth green of Walnut Grove Country Club on Thursday, April 23. Oberkrom and his wife, Ruth, have been members at the club for 12 years. Staff photo by Ron Alvey

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Country clubs feeling the pinch as golfers abstain

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By James Cummings  and Bucky Albers, Staff Writers Updated 11:46 PM Thursday, April 23, 2009

Belonging to a country club is like owning a second luxury car, said Steve Jurick, executive director of the Miami Valley Golf Association. As nice as they are to have, when it’s time to trim a personal budget, extra luxuries may be the first cuts.

The popularity of golf club memberships has been waning since about 2001, Jurick said; and the economic downturn of the last year has accelerated the trend.

“It’s a combination of issues,” he said. “One issue is the state of the economy, but that’s not all it is.”

Jurick said one local indicator is that the number of private club members subscribing to the local handicap tracking service dropped more than 7 percent from October 2007 to October 2008, a reduction of 587 golfers.

Nationally, the National Golf Federation reported last spring that the number of private golf clubs peaked at 4,898 in 1988 and fell to 4,415 in 2008. Of the remaining clubs, “10 (percent) to 15 percent of the clubs report being seriously challenged, financially and otherwise, which projects to at least 500 or so clubs nationwide.”

Tom Lovett, president of the Dayton Country Club board of directors, said golf clubs are searching for new niches in a landscape of increased competition for money and time.

“They’ve built too many private clubs in the last 20 years,” Lovett said. “Country clubs will still go on, but there will be fewer of them. And they will have to gear their staffs for fewer members.”

Lovett, who performs executive searches for businesses, said one reason for the decline in country club members is that many corporations no longer include memberships in their compensation packages.

“The corporate executives don’t get the write-offs like they used to,” he said. “Those kinds of perks have been going away.”

So what are country clubs doing to survive in the Miami Valley and elsewhere?

Jurick said most clubs are reducing initiation fees and monthly dues and opening up their courses to nonmember play during off-peak hours.

Basically, clubs are becoming more affordable and less exclusive.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395

or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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