JohnnyBlueCup
New member
As others are saying, supply and demand is key here. Raleigh and the surrounding areas have tons of golf, and publicly accessible golf at that. The membership you reference is for semi-private courses that don't really restrict tee times from the public and are extremely average courses at best. One of them is a goat track.I know the Raleigh Durham area has a membership that includes FOUR different courses within about a 30 mile radius for about $3,060, that INCLUDES a cart.
Even with that price, you still have to play/practice a lot to get your money back. It's basically just prepaying for your rounds each month. With so many other quality courses around, it's hard to justify putting all your eggs into one basket when you could pay roughly the same each month and play wherever you want.
Private courses are a different animal. You're not making your money back in a physical sense. You pay for the intangibles. The fully private courses in the Raleigh/Durham area are as expensive as most places outside of a few. Several clubs within 20 miles with six figure initiation fees.
It always just comes down to how many courses are in a given area, and the number/variety of golfers interesting in playing them.