If you have to ask, Barry, …
A reader asks what the current initiation fee is for the Greenwich Country Club. Not my sport and certainly not my social circle, but I’m confident the wealthy FWIW reader base will know – Cos Cobber? Walt? Bueller? For that matter, if you care to, how about supplying initiation fees for the other clubs in town?
For What It's Worth 
The going rate is around $80K for initiation at most of the Greenwich clubs. They usually have a lower rate for younger members. Annual dues are around $12K a year.
Thank you
The ” lower end ” clubs are $ 80k , Greenwich and Stanwich are closer to $ 120k
sounds low
Greenwich is 100k, unless
You are applying as a junior member (under 36 years of age) it’s 40k
Dues are usually 12-15k
But most members spend around 30k/yr if they are actually using the club.
Stanwich CC is now 125k
RH also north of 100k
BTCC closer to 80k
The others I don’t know
But as the saying goes….
“If you have to ask”
Basically if you can afford to light money on fire, you can join.
It’s also called FU money
Which as one of my favorite clients defines it as
“Not just living off of the interest, it’s living off the interest OF the interest”.
it’s really not a bad deal if you have a family and use the club. For example, if you have two or three kids who use the pool, play tennis or golf every day and the parents play two or three rounds of golf per week it’s a steal. Compared to what you’d pay to rent a summer house at the beach or send your kids away to camp it is a good deal. The annual club dues are what it what it would cost to take your family to a nice resort for a long weekend. And hanging out at the club is like being on vacation.
But then anon, your children spend the summer hanging out with the same people they spend the school year with. Yawner. Take the money and travel with them. Take them around the world, not on another round on the links.
Actually, the kids at the club mostly attend different schools than my kids so it’s nice for them to mix with others… We do travel a bit, but it’s such a hassle and waste of jet fuel. I prefer to spend more time around town during the summer rather than sitting in traffic or going to a crowded beach or resort. It’s such a pleasure to walk into a restaurant in Greenwich in the middle of August without a reservation. You can actually find a parking spot on Greenwich Avenue too!
That works too. Sounds like a nice balance.
HA I have NEVER heard anyone refer to a membership at a CC a ” steal ” , In fact most are told , ” don’t ever calculate your cost basis against your rounds played per year – it will make the average golfer cry ” . Additionally NO One I know whom belongs to a club , uses it as a “stay-cation ” and doesn’t disappear for a few weeks over the summer … when you get down to it ….a CC membership in the NE where the legitimate season is around 6 months is more about the social aspect then golf
Wee Burn is $120,000. To join and about $40,000/yr if you use the club at all.
All bargains relative to the equity ownership golf clubs in the region- Purchase, Glen Arbor, and Hudson National. At the peak, each was finding members happy to pay $250,000+ to join. But now I hear at Hudson and Glen Arbor there is a long queue of members looking to get out, but nobody willing to buy in.
Glen Arbor is an odd club; was originally built as corporate club, for Japanese businessmen. Not a bad looking club but tends to get members from the city, Mayor Bloomberg for one, and others who can’t get into Bedford Golf and Tennis. I know less than a handful of local people who belong to Glen Arbor, no one with pockets so deep as to afford the $250 you say. Maybe the early ones got in for a song?
Don’t pooh pooh Bloomberg’s clubability. He is or was a member of the most exclusive blue blood society clubs in the US: the Brook, the Raquet and Tennis, the National and Mid Ocean. If he belongs to Glen Arbor it’s because it’s near his house in North Salem and a more challenging course than BGT, not because he can’t get in anywhere else.
If the guy has to ask you, that means he doesn’t have a sponsor to ask, not to the mention the five or six other letter writers he’s going to need. Ask all you want, but it still takes more than cash to get in. Good story around about the (Mormon) wife of the heads of one of the big NY investment banks, new $20 mil RHR house, good mid west stock, drives up to Round Hill and asks the then manager to show her around, she would like to be shown the facilities as she is considering joining. Nope. Maybe RHC was worried how many other wives would be using the place if they joined. Anyway that ain’t the way it works.
Ask Monica Noel about how not to join a club. But that aside, there are lots of reasons to want to know what an initiation fee like, for instance, an ex claiming poverty who suddenly joins a country club.
I dont have to ask Swiss Brazilian Monica, darling, Page Six already did. But you knew that already, didnt you? Thongs!
http://pagesix.com/2009/03/02/noels-felt-e-end-chill-early/
[Oh, that’s too good to hide in a link here’s the text – ED]
a bit more info/analysis (starts middle of page or thereabouts):
http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/218347
Take the advice of Groucho Marx and stop sweating it:
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”
I’m quite happy at The Griff or Sterling Farms…I don’t mind playing with the unwashed…more interesting folks.
So you are the one I get paired with?!
Time is money. I can’t spend 5 hours playing a round at The Griff or Sterling when it only takes 3 hours at the club…
FWIW, you can play the Griff during the week during the evenings in about 3:40 to 4:15.
I was under the impression one engaged in recreation for fun, not money, but then, I don’t play golf. What a busy life you must have.
What about the yacht clubs? I also hear they tend to reciprocate some member benefits at the country clubs in town, so you can enjoy the clubhouse on the water, but get in a golf game here and there
Nope.
Reciprocal dining privileges often exist between the yacht clubs and some country clubs, some clubs in NYC as well. Depends on the club. Some of them are choosier than others with whom they’ll share reciprocal dining privileges. Yacht clubs often do offer reciprocal privileges generally to yacht clubs they consider their (more or less) equals, but not to others. For example, OGYC, MRBYC, GBYC, and BBC have never had reciprocal privileges at RYC or IHYC.
Well gee whiz Cato, you mean the hula shirt bass fishing crowd at MRBYC cant dine with the royals at RYC? Wow, thanks for clearing that up, I am sure many were confused.
You might as well cover golf too and point out The Griff has no relationship with Augusta National.
Hell Cob, just give me a call and you can be my guest. I quit the RYC years ago but Gideon can get us in – we’ll wear matching hula shirts.
Cato: You’re correct, of course. I was referring to the idea of golf privileges for non-CC members.
Really we are calling OG a Yacht Club , I mean I know for arguments sake that is the proper name but really , it is a Kayak club
I commented on the name change from “boat” to “yacht” a few years ago when they changed it. Silly, really, because it’s a great resource for town residents, with very nice members. Best deal in town, for everyone, regardless of the new name.
Doubt that.
If you’re not a member, you’re a guest, and if you’re not a guest, your paying 1200/round at a charity outing.
Reciprocal agreement only extend to facilities that the clubs have in common. Many of the country clubs in town have dinning reciprocal dinning privileges with the Yacht clubs but not golfing privileges. Those are only extended to other golf clubs.
The Hustler Club over on the west side of Manhattan lets anyone in. It’s very fair, non-discriminatory. .
God bless America.
I belong to a club, albeit not in Greenwich. $40k per year sounds awfully high to spend in a year.
Brings to mind the line from Caddyshack, “Don’t you people have homes?”
“The world will always need ditch diggers, son!”
Best line ever.
You missed out Greenwich Water Club.
Any thoughts? I’m thinking about applying….
UBS MD
We forgot to mention it bc it’s not a real club
It’s just a small pool/patio/over priced restaurant in the CC marshlands beneath i95
But maybe that’s your thing.
Correct, its not a real club, but whatever it is, the GWC has a wait list and people like it. Its worth giving it a whirl for a year, especially if you have kids age 12 and under as the two pools provides a nice place to cool off in the summer.
If they could get a few tennis courts going it would help round it out a bit.
I’d say 1/3rd of the ‘members’ are from Cos Cob..but don’t worry, its still a collars up place – albeit on the jr budget.
if you’re a club member, do you have to wear member’s only jackets? those shoulder hoops are really lame.
The Round Hill Club and Belle Haven require Full Clevelands, other clubs in town are more informal
Belle Haven is a fake club, just a Water Club for the 1%. Buy a house in Belle Have, you are in the club. Anyone can be a member, it just takes more bucks for some.
For a new real estate broker in Greenwich, what clubs should I join in order to network and get new listings?
Pemberwick Pigeon Club, Byram River Trout Club and the Chickahominy Dumpster Divers