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These days, a check and a pulse might be all prospective members need to get in the door of many country clubs

An empty driving range has become a familiar sight at some golf clubs around the country.

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By Ron Kroichick, Special to Golf Digest Digital

May 1, 2009

As the sputtering economy squeezes private country clubs throughout the U.S., Steve Graves finds himself in more demand than ever. Graves -- a balding, gregarious former head pro at Manhattan (Kan.) CC -- is the founder and president of Creative Golf Marketing, a golf-course marketing and management company based in Manhattan. He has seen clubs scramble for members in recent years and especially in recent months: slashing initiation fees, dropping monthly dues, turning a once-elaborate screening process into a mere show-me-the-money formality.

But the depth of the industry's troubles became abundantly clear when one elite club in the Midwest asked Graves to give a presentation at its board meeting. The club, reluctant about reaching out to a marketing consultant in the first place, told him it was 32 members below its comfort level. The day after making his pitch to the board, Graves received a phone call from one club official, who told Graves the club wanted to hire him.

Then the man lowered his voice and whispered, "We're actually down 72 members."

"They didn't want anyone to know how bad the problem was," Graves said. "They're fearful of members saying, 'Aha, the board must have screwed up,' so they just raise the dues ... The problem is much deeper. That's like treating a serious disease with a band-aid."

The band-aids come in all shapes and sizes these days, as clubs try to keep their membership rolls full amid the nation's worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Golf already was fighting waning participation, of course, and then the broader economy plunged, sending clubs into new frontiers of damage control.

That means quickly green-lighting applications, in many cases, rather than sending prospective members through a maze of drawn-out scrutiny. "If you have a check and it doesn't bounce, you can join most country clubs," said Steve Richardson, general manager of Paradise Valley CC in Arizona. Or as the GM of one California club said, "If the guy's not a criminal, he'll get approved."

This represents a striking change from the days of long waiting lists filled with golfers eager to plop down big money. Those lists have vanished entirely at many clubs, replaced by wait-to-sell lists of jittery members plotting an exit route in case they lose their job.

One of the most common responses by clubs has been marking down once-hefty initiation fees. Oakland Hills CC in suburban Detroit, host of last year's PGA Championship, dropped its fee from $110,000 to $60,000. One club in Minneapolis cut its fee from $50,000 to $5,000. Morgan Creek G&CC in suburban Sacramento went from $40,000 to $25,000 to zero, with plans to restore only a modest fee (between $500 and $2,000) this summer.

Graves, whose company has worked with more than 900 clubs in 46 states since 1990, advises his clients against slashing initiation fees too drastically, saying that strategy will not solve the problem. He advocates trial memberships, new membership categories (such as one for young executives) and relaxing traditional policies prohibiting, say, jeans and cell phones in the clubhouse.

It's 2009, folks, and the game has changed.

"Thirty years ago, the line was out the door to get into a club," said John Stanley, general manager of North Jersey CC in Wayne, N.J. "You could say, 'Stand on your head,' and people would. We don't have that type of draw today."

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Research done last year by the National Golf Foundation showed memberships in private clubs nationwide down, on average, 13 percent. The NGF also found nearly 15 percent of clubs classifying themselves as "seriously challenged," with those clubs down 29 percent in membership.

A more recent survey by the Metropolitan Golf Association of New York revealed more than half of the 100-plus clubs responding expected to lose 16 or more members in the year ending June 1. The survey also showed clubs are becoming more flexible on initiation fees -- nearly half are allowing initiation fees to be paid over time or offering special terms this year.

Beyond new ways to pay, many prospective members also can savor the friendlier screening process. That used to rival the Spanish Inquisition, as one club official put it, dragging on for four to six months at some fancier clubs and including everything from exhaustive committee reviews and two-week bulletin-board posting to a formal interview and cocktail party.

Not anymore. Graves acknowledged this seismic shift, though he encourages clubs to streamline the screening process without loosening their standards too much -- taking new members after less diligent reviews, for example, but putting them on probation for one or two years.

There's still ample incentive for clubs to maintain reasonable standards. Many private clubs enjoy non-profit status, but the requirements for that designation, in the government's eyes, include having specific criterion for membership and reviewing an applicant's credentials. Or, put another way, you're not supposed to let just anyone stroll onto the No. 1 tee.