Apologies for parachuting in here from the middle of the country but I had a question/asking for feedback please:
I have a friend/coworker who spends a lot of time in ATL and is looking to join a club to take clients out for golf/food as a national member. He is currently thinking about the following:
-The Standard
-CC of the South (slight “bonus” points for ClubCorp since we have 3 cc courses in KC he could also play at)
-Horseshoe Bend
Any insight on these three (golf course quality & general vibe) would be awesome - thank you!
I can weigh in on Standard. Unfortunately, just resigned. They are doing clubhouse Reno / full range redo with mizuno coming in. (Range closed for the next 10 weeks)
There’s a full bunker / green and tee renovation planned for 25-26.
They just jacked up the initiation and assessed all the members way more than it’s worth imo.
Overall, it was a great club and I love the Reno plans but the cost with no guarantee they won’t slap another assessment in 2-3 years wasn’t worth it for me.
could be wrong, but I think a poll of most people putting courses into ranking tiers, Horseshoe Bend would be in a clear tier above Standard/CCotS. I think the price of horseshoe would also reflect that.
Do you know his budget? All of those clubs are pretty far away from where someone would be “taking clients out to”. I like the idea @RangerB suggested doing Ansley.
I’d start here
(Left off of this are the top tier clubs: Capital City, Ansley, Atlanta Country Club, Cherokee and Piedmont Driving Club)
Yeah totally missing DHCC on there, but it trends towards top 5 cost wise.
Realistically, I think all clubs saw a massive boon during Covid, so to combat overcrowding, they added wait lists in hopes people would fall off - they didn’t so they upped costs - people still didn’t fall off. Now you’ve got increased money coming in so clubs feel like they have to renovate and the cost hamster wheel just keeps spinning.
Atlanta private golf is an arms race. Memberships and waitlists are the highest numbers they ever have been… increased dues means increased money means member’s expectation rise thanks to the comparison trap. If you feel differently, would love to hear why.
Hate hearing that. It was pretty tired the last time I played it, likely 2019, but I always felt like a bunker refresh and 500K-1.5M would have made that place so good.
My parents were members of Hamilton Mill when I was growing up and HMill was part of the ClubCorp family then. But towards the tail end of my high school years, it was getting to the point where all the ClubCorp places around ATL hated when we wanted to go play at a different spot. Just because all the ClubCorp spots were getting so crowded it was tough to accommodate outside play.
As for the budget I’d say it has to make sense but in general he can afford it, if that makes sense. No real ATL connections at any clubs so I don’t think getting into any of the stuffier ones (not sure what those are) would be an option.
As for the location, I think he is looking in that general area as he has a… paramour in the area, ha.
