Info on following NYC area clubs

[Benji1515]

Hey everyone, I recently moved to Brooklyn and looking for a Country Club nearby.  I'm 29 and expressed interest in Pelham, Richmond CC, Lake Success, Wykagyl, and Inwood.  

 

Richmond and Inwood seem the closest but haven't been able to find out much regarding the course and general vibe there.  I have tours/interviews pending with all of them except Wykagyl who told me to kick rocks since I don't know any members, not worried about costs but looking for a good club with a lot of younger members.

[3PuttLefty]

My 2 cents would be to stay somewhere in the island (not sure how close to SI you are) but to travel to Westchester could be a nightmare.  At times i could see an easy 1+ ride to PCC or Wykagl with traffic.  

[Lassy16]

Did you find out any info on the clubs you mentioned? I'm in the same boat.

[el papa malo]

I am a member of Upper Montclair Country Club.  We have a lot of young members at our club who have joined over the past 5 years - we made a strong effort to get junior members.  I know a number of our members live in brooklyn (although I don't know where you live in Brooklyn)..  They have told me that traffic on saturday/sunday mornings is not a problem

 

On Saturday March 5th from 11AM to 2PM, we have an open house for prospective members.  If you are interested, PM me and I will forward you the info and you can RSVP.

 

 

Luis

 

 

 

[Ty_Webb]

Inwood is probably the best course of the ones you listed. I don't know Wykagyl. Inwood has a beach club as well if that's something that helps. Course is really good. It's on the shore right by JFK (like planes will get close). It's routing is a little strange. It has three par 5s in a row (3, 4 and 5) and that's it for the par fives. 13, 14 and 15 is probably the best stretch of holes. It's not cheap though. 

 

Lake Success is not great IMO. Pelham is supposed to be pretty good. I've heard some good things about it, but you'd have to traverse either the BQE or Manhattan to get there. Same with Wykagyl. If you can cover it, Inwood isn't far and would be my top choice in your situation. 

[SLUGCC2002]

On 2/18/2022 at 8:24 PM, Ty_Webb said:

Inwood is probably the best course of the ones you listed. I don't know Wykagyl. Inwood has a beach club as well if that's something that helps. Course is really good. It's on the shore right by JFK (like planes will get close). It's routing is a little strange. It has three par 5s in a row (3, 4 and 5) and that's it for the par fives. 13, 14 and 15 is probably the best stretch of holes. It's not cheap though. 

 

Lake Success is not great IMO. Pelham is supposed to be pretty good. I've heard some good things about it, but you'd have to traverse either the BQE or Manhattan to get there. Same with Wykagyl. If you can cover it, Inwood isn't far and would be my top choice in your situation. 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Inwood's dues are north of $20K/year, aren't they?

[Ty_Webb]

19 minutes ago, SLUGCC2002 said:

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Inwood's dues are north of $20K/year, aren't they?

I don't know, but I would say "probably". I think when they were making offers it was something like in July they said pay next year's dues of $18k and we'll give you the rest of this year for free. Then $19k for year two and $20k thereafter. This was a good few years ago. Given where we are now they may have a wait list and joining fee on top. I doubt if it's come down. 

 

I did write to a few clubs around and I may have them mixed up with somewhere else, so I certainly wouldn't take this as gospel. 

OP did say he wasn't worried about money. That means different things to different people though. Fun fact - my brother in law was working at a wine store in NYC. Guy came in and said he was throwing a dinner party, knew nothing about wine, but wanted to impress his friends who did know about it. BIL asked him what his budget was. He said "oh, I'm not worried what it costs, I just want the best stuff you have". BIL said okay, well we have this one here - it's $60 a bottle and is really good. Guy looks and asks him why it's better than the one on the row below that's $100 a bottle. BIL was like, um okay, so you really mean it. At the end of it, the guy gave him his card. BIL looked him up later on. Hedge fund guy worth somewhere in the $15-20 billion range. Could have bought the entire store and not even blinked. I guess here, if money is really no object, Bayonne isn't far away and you could probably join the Bridge, buy a house in the Hamptons and then take a helicopter to work.

[neurofidelity]

Does anyone have information (dues, initiation, waitlist) on Pelham CC or Quaker Ridge? I'm interested in joining as a junior member. Thanks!

[SLUGCC2002]

18 hours ago, neurofidelity said:

Does anyone have information (dues, initiation, waitlist) on Pelham CC or Quaker Ridge? I'm interested in joining as a junior member. Thanks!

 

Unless you're Jewish and a legacy, you probably don't have a chance at Quaker Ridge.

[SunsetValley]

@Ty_Webb do you know anything about North Hills, Engineers, or other clubs around there? I’m also considering Inwood and Seawane, but looks like it would be easier to get to the clubs in Northern LI…

[Ty_Webb]

Engineers is pretty good and has a WILD set of greens. I've only played there once. I bought one of those greens books for it. The key at the beginning said that each green gets a ranking to show its difficulty and they were like 20 is easy, 40 is medium and 60 is hard. I think the lowest rating for a green there was in the 70s. Crazy stuff. It's a fun course though. I had heard some noise like it was going to be developed into housing, but I think they've pulled back on that and it's going to stay a golf course. I believe they're looking for members, but that was a couple of years ago so things may have changed.

 

North Hills I've played a couple of times. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but that may be because it doesn't suit my game. It's right next to Deepdale and close by to Fresh Meadow. I don't know anything about membership there. They should have called it North Trees, not North Hills. It's quite tree-y. 

[SunsetValley]

@Ty_Webb that’s helpful, thank you. I just read Engineers is building some condos on the property and renovating the golf course 😞: https://clubandresortbusiness.com/engineers-cc-readies-for-golf-course-enhancements-and-condos/

Have you played Seawane? Any other clubs around LI that you have played that might be worth looking into?

[Ty_Webb]

Yes I've played Seawane. It's pretty good, but it's hard. Lots of water around and heavy duty bunkering. Not easy, but they frequently have the Met and LI area events there. 

 

My knowledge of the courses is mostly what the course is like, not what joining is like. I know there are a few around Hicksville distance that are doable. Places like Muttontown. There's also Pine Hollow around there and Tam O'Shanter. They're mostly pretty similar and expensive. There's Colonial Springs, which is 27 holes, but it's a fairly long way from the city. About 5 miles further than Bethpage. Most of them are a lot of money for not all that much golf course. The really good courses I assume are very hard to get into. Places like Piping Rock and Garden City for example.

 

Other places I've managed to play, mostly from MGA and LIGA events - Plandome (played it in torrential rain - don't really know any more about it), Sands Point (really nice course, but I believe it's very tough to get into), Southward Ho (decent golf course, not too too expensive, got eaten alive by mosquitos), Cherry Valley and Garden City Country Club (both in Garden City, both nice golf courses, don't know about membership), North Hempstead (nice course, no clue about membership), Brookville (I like the course here, again no clue about membership), Wheatley Hills (nice course again - has some quirk to it - not sure about membership, but it's a no frills type place, course and not much else).

 

Other places you could look at:

 

Rockaway Hunting Club

Old Westbury

Glen Head

Glen Oaks

North Shore

Nassau

 

I suspect most if not all are know a few member type places.

 

 

[SunsetValley]

@Ty_Webb Thank you, that's very helpful.