Members Only : Country Clubs Report Booming Business; Those Who Join Claim It Is Money Well-Spent

Robert Steinbeck sipped a beer after playing 18 holes of golf at the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. Last month, he paid $18,000 for the club’s most expensive membership.

“I had the money and it was either golf or a Porsche, so I decided to invest it in golf,” said Steinbeck, who owns a construction business. “I’m 29, so I’ve got a lot of golf in front of me.”

Officials at San Fernando Valley-area country clubs say there are a lot of people like Steinbeck. Interest in golf is booming, and many clubs report full or near-full memberships. Several are spending large sums to improve their golf courses and clubhouses, and at least four developers plan to build country clubs in the area.

Members cite a variety of reasons for joining a country club. These include avoiding weekend “gridlock” on public courses, golf’s reputation as a business networking tool, and a sense of safety and unity that come with a club’s exclusivity.

“I have three sons and they all play golf here,” Polly Rulon said during a break on the putting green at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village. “I know where they are and they’re safe.”

‘It’s Like a Family’

“You get to know everyone at your club,” said Bob Coyle, a member of Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge. “It’s like a family. It’s where you spend your weekends. My kids took advantage of it growing up, and my wife plays. Or she gets out there, put it that way.”

In the eyes of the die-hard golfer, a country club can be quite satisfactory with only a golf course and a clubhouse with lockers, a restaurant and a bar. However, many clubs have such additional facilities as tennis courts, a swimming pool and banquet rooms where members entertain business associates, hold wedding receptions and the like.

Most clubs sell an array of memberships--some unlimited, others good for golf only on weekdays or for tennis only. A “social” membership allows use of the club’s restaurant and banquet rooms.

Robert Steinbeck’s lifetime membership at Braemar accords him use of all the club’s facilities without payment of monthly dues. The same privileges can be had for a $6,000 membership that includes monthly dues of $170. Country club members do not pay greens fees. However, most clubs impose a food and beverage minimum, insisting that members spend anywhere from $100 to $300 per quarter in the club’s restaurant and bar.

For the golf devotee, however, the cost of a club is money well spent. Braemar member Dave Hamilton, 24, said that some days he plays as many as 54 holes. When traveling, he may play without charge at any of the 190 clubs owned nationwide by Braemar’s parent company, Dallas-based Club Corp. of America. The company also owns Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge.

Gamble on Outcome

Polly Rulon said most of the 170 women in the Ladies Club at North Ranch get their money’s worth, playing golf four times a week. Like many club members, she and her friends gamble on the outcome of games.

“With us, it’s just nickels and dimes,” she said. “The most we’ll lose is $2. But the men play for hundreds, literally.”

Insurance agent Peter Crecion said he joined Porter Valley three years ago for the betting opportunities.

“I gave up tennis for golf because no one gambles at tennis,” he said. “I’ve played public courses and they bet for nickels. At clubs, they bet for dollars.”

Crecion is not alone in his recent conversion to golf. Whatever the reason--gambling, recreation, family togetherness, business opportunity--people are taking up the game in record numbers.

‘Average Age 48’

“The baby-boomers are starting to play,” said Bobby Heath, director of golf at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley, site of the GTE Seniors Classic and one of the area’s most challenging courses. “Our average age is about 48 years old, which is really young.”

“Most of our newer members are in their early to mid-40s, younger than what the club experienced in the past,” said David Wardlow, general manager of sold-out Porter Valley. “They’re high-income people, people aggressive in their jobs and careers. Our members do more business entertaining here than in the past.”

Country clubs have dress codes. Most forbid bare feet and the wearing of shirts without collars or unhemmed shorts. At many clubs, a woman’s shorts may no higher than 4 inches above the knee.

Annette Nickell, director of membership at Braemar, said the rules surprise some people.

“There’s a new generation coming through, but I think they’re looking for a more traditional thing,” she said. “Some of them might question the dress code at first, but then they see it helps create an atmosphere. They like the structure. They want the camaraderie and friendships they find here.”

Charli Cusolito has been a North Ranch member for 3 1/2 years. She said she once had a poor opinion of country clubs, a view fostered by dress codes and the image of a moneyed, elitist membership.

“I used to think, ‘Aren’t they snooty?’ But that was just jealousy because I didn’t belong,” Cusolito said. “They tend to be higher echelon people because, face it, it takes money to belong. But everyone is nice.”

There are two basic types of country club, equity and non-equity. With the former, the golf course and other facilities are owned by the members. At non-equity clubs, a corporation or other owner retains title to the real estate.

At all equity clubs and most non-equity clubs, a person’s membership has value and can be sold, with the club collecting a transfer fee. The advantage of equity clubs is that members set the rules. Such clubs make it easier for golfers to play at convenient times by placing a low limit on the total number of memberships.

“If a business owns the club, they’re naturally going to sell as many memberships as they can get away with,” said a member of one equity club. “You get into a situation where you belong to a club, but you can’t get a starting time on the weekend.”

Some Prohibitions

Although officials at non-equity clubs said their members rarely are denied play on weekends, some said they do prohibit members from bringing guests during prime weekend hours.

The main drawback of equity clubs is their greater cost. A full membership at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake, the oldest and most expensive club in the Valley, runs $50,000. The monthly dues are $270.

Officials at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana declined to be interviewed for this story. However, a knowledgeable source said El Caballero memberships cost $40,000 and monthly dues are $300.

Membership at another equity club in the Valley, Woodland Hills Country Club, costs $12,500, and dues are $200.

Another potential drawback to equity clubs is liability on the part of members for accidents, earthquakes, storm damage and the like. Clubs buy insurance, but members are responsible should a loss exceed the coverage.

‘Always Risk’

“In theory, there’s always risk,” said Jim Woodyard, president of Lakeside. “If a kid runs across your course and gets killed by a golf ball, of course, there could be liability.”

The area’s most expensive non-equity club is Valencia Country Club, where a personal membership costs $25,000 and monthly dues run $175. The club also offers a corporate membership, issued to two individuals and transferable without fee, for $50,000 and dues of $350 per month.

Like many Valley-area golf courses, the Valencia course was built as part of a housing development. Some were started as members-only clubs. Others, including Valencia, were open to the public on a pay-per-play basis.

The Valencia course was designed by internationally known golf architect Robert Trent Jones and has been used by the Professional Golfers Assn. for qualifying tournaments. In 1985, it was purchased by a U. S. arm of the Japanese electronics company Uniden Corp. The same year, another Japan-based company, Nitto America, bought the Calabasas Golf and Country Club, and officials at other clubs said they have had frequent buyout inquiries from Japanese interests.

Uniden converted the Valencia course into a private club last year. Bud Tenerani, the club’s director of marketing, said the company has spent more than $1 million on a computerized sprinkler system for the course and plans to start construction this spring on a $6.5-million clubhouse. The two-story structure will house a 200-person restaurant, private dining rooms, a sauna, Japanese bath and 600 lockers.

Popular With Japanese

Tenerani said the club has reached about half its projected membership of 500, with its makeup about 60% Japanese and 40% Anglo.

A Japanese majority at a club in the largely white Santa Clarita Valley “isn’t odd at all when you consider the fanaticism Japanese businessmen have for golf,” said Tenerani. “It’s a highly popular activity that relates not only to their leisure time, but also to their work. The golf course is an extension of their office.”

Another Japanese company, Cosmo World Corp., plans to spend $18 million in the next two years building a private golf club in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Steve Timm, former golf director at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, is in charge. Timm said golf’s rising popularity virtually assures the club’s financial success.

“It’s like shooting with a wide-angle shotgun from 20 yards,” he said. “You can’t miss.”

All club representatives interviewed for this story said their organizations have no restrictions on the race, sex or religion of members. Officials at two--Lakeside and Woodland Hills--said they have no black members, but only because no blacks have asked to join.

Pam Albers of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said she was aware of no complaints accusing Valley-area country clubs of discrimination on the basis of race, religion or physical disability. She said, however, that she was investigating a complaint of sexual discrimination. Albers declined to elaborate or name the club before charges are filed.

Joining Not Difficult

Country club officials say joining a club usually is not difficult. Most require a person to be sponsored by a current member, but some do not.

“It used to be if you knew how to spell golf , they’d let you in, but now it’s a little more exclusive,” said a member of the Woodland Hills Country Club. “You’re supposed to have a sponsor, but if you call up and ask for an application, you’ll get one.”

Tom Carroll, general manager of North Ranch, site of this year’s NCAA finals, said the overriding criterion for membership is an ability to pay the costs.

“Anyone with a decent TRW can become a member of North Ranch,” he said, referring to the credit-reference company. “It does require sponsorship, but that’s not a problem.”

Carroll said that before joining a club, people should consider what facilities and atmosphere they are after. Some clubs are for inveterate golfers; others are more social in emphasis.

Active Junior Programs

“We’re a family country club,” Carroll said. “We have a very active junior golf and tennis program, we have dinner theater, we have theme nights--like a Dickens Christmas dinner. We have music regularly--a dinner-dance on Saturday, a singer on Friday, Sunday brunch, music for dancing on Sunday night.”

Chuck Frank, general manager of Sunset Hills Country Club in Thousand Oaks, said his membership bucks the trend toward younger golfers.

“Ours is a little older group,” he said. “They’re more people who are taking up golf again in retirement.”

Frank said the stock market dive in October prompted a few people to sell their memberships, and other clubs reported a few sales. But most said there was no effect.

One company confident of a continuing golf boom is Potomac Investment Associates of Maryland, which is planning to build a Tournament Players Club as part of a $500-million housing development 4 miles south of Simi Valley. A joint venture with the Professional Golfers’ Assn., the course would be a country club designed to accommodate thousands of spectators at occasional professional tournaments. Completion would be three to six years away.

Country Clubs Planned

Murdoch Development Co. is planning a country club as part of a housing tract at Lake Sherwood south of Westlake Village, and the Montevideo Country Club is a Topanga Canyon project whose backers have struggled for years for needed government approval.

There is one small corner of the world, however, that the country club craze has overlooked. The Lake Lindero Country Club in Agoura boasts only a short (par 29) nine-hole course. But it also offers an Olympic-sized pool, four tennis courts and boating on 14-acre Lake Lindero.

With an initiation fee of $450 and monthly dues of $69, it is the least expensive country club around.

“It’s the most hidden deal there is,” general manager Jack Rutz said one recent afternoon. “It’s so hidden, nobody knows we’re here. Right now, it’s a beautiful day for golf. In the Valley, they’ll be standing in line to play and I’ve only got 10 golfers.”

COUNTRY CLUB LIST Braemar Country Club, Tarzana Full Membership Cost: $6,000 Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $3,000 Monthly Dues: $170 Facilities: 2 18-hole courses, 20 tennis courts, 2 swimming pools, dining facilities. Number of Golf Members: 950 Number of Available Memberships: 150 Calabasas Golf and Country Club, Calabasas Full Membership Cost: $12,000 (non-equity) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $10,000 Monthly Dues: $176 Facilities: 18-hole course, dining room Number of Golf Members: 500 Number of Available Memberships: none El Caballero Country Club,Tarzana Full Membership Cost: $40,000 (equity) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $27,000 Monthly Dues: $200 Facilities: 18-hole course Number of Golf Members: NA* Number of Available Memberships: NA* Lake Lindero Country Club, Agoura Full Membership Cost: $450 Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): Full Membership Cost: None Monthly Dues: $69 Facilities: 9-hole executive course, 4 tennis courts, pool, lake Number of Golf Members: 400 Number of Available Memberships: 100 Lakeside Golf Club, Toluca Lake Full Membership Cost: $50,000 Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $38,000 Monthly Dues: $270 Facilities: 18-hole course swimming pool, “a few tennis courts”, dining room Number of Golf Members: 500 Number of Available Memberships: “a few” North Ranch Country Club, Westlake Village Full Membership Cost: $10,000 (non equity) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): None Monthly Dues: $250 Facilities: 27-hole course, 12 tennis courts, dining and banquet rooms Number of Golf Members: 500 Number of Available Memberships: 120 Porter Valley Country Club, Northridge Full Membership Cost: $8,000 (non-equity) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $4,000 Monthly Dues: $194 Facilities: 18-hole golf course 5 tennis courts, swimming pool, dining rooms Number of Golf Members: 620 Number of Available Memberships: none Sunset Hills Country Club, Thousand Oaks Full Membership Cost: $3,750 Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $1,875 Monthly Dues: $160 Facilities: 18-hole course, 10 tennis courts, restaurant Number of Golf Members: 550 Number of Available Memberships: 15-20 Woodland Hills Country Club, Woodland Hills Full Membership Cost: $12,500 (equity) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $9,000 Monthly Dues: $200 Facilities: 18-hole, banquet facilities Number of Golf Members: 350 Number of Available Memberships: “a few” Wood Ranch Golf Club, Simi Valley Full Membership Cost: $16,500 (non equity) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $9,900 Monthly Dues: $260 Facilities: 18-hole course, banquet facilities Number of Golf Members: 330 Number of Available Memberships: 170 Valencia Country Club, Valencia Full Membership Cost: $25,000 (non-equity) (must get) Resale Value (cost minus transfer fee): $20,000 Monthly Dues: $175 Facilities: 18-hole course, dining room Number of Golf Members: 230 Number of Available Memberships: 270 * Not Available