Country Clubs...I want facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DC social scene is Chevy Chase Club, Congressional, Columbia. Thats its. No one gives a shit about any other club. The REASON people dont belong to those three are as follows. Dont have connections, or the money.

Woodmont is so gaudy with its new club house its insane. The management is terrible. Lakewood is decent but in a lot of debt and has no money to update the place

Bethesda Country Club is nice but again you belong there because you cant afford anything better. Country clubs are divided among economic status.

You belong to Chevy Chase Club you have bragging rights. A VERY difficult membership process and most do not make it. They do not care about money or who you are. They want to know how you are connected. Even the staff who work at Chevy made it in life. Most have come from very nice clubs around the world just to work at Chevy. The caliber of the staff down to the janitor is excellent.

This thread is from 2012.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pool food is bad at all of them. A little better at Chevy. Indoor food is best at Columbia and Congressional.

I've dined as a guest numerous times at Congressional. Never had a meal I would consider good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DC social scene is Chevy Chase Club, Congressional, Columbia. Thats its. No one gives a shit about any other club. The REASON people dont belong to those three are as follows. Dont have connections, or the money.

Woodmont is so gaudy with its new club house its insane. The management is terrible. Lakewood is decent but in a lot of debt and has no money to update the place

Bethesda Country Club is nice but again you belong there because you cant afford anything better. Country clubs are divided among economic status.

You belong to Chevy Chase Club you have bragging rights. A VERY difficult membership process and most do not make it. They do not care about money or who you are. They want to know how you are connected. Even the staff who work at Chevy made it in life. Most have come from very nice clubs around the world just to work at Chevy. The caliber of the staff down to the janitor is excellent.

Actually, no one in DC could give two shots about country clubs. It is an outdated, ridiculously pretentious social model. Everyone I know likes to play the fantastic public courses around the region rather than be stuck playing the same course over and over. Beyond that, there are plenty of restaurants, pools and other opportunities to socialize, rather than be stuck with the WASPY "Chevy" folks, or the Catholic Columbia folks or the Jewish Woodmont folks.

This type of self selected segregation is so 1950's, or 1910's, that it is surprising people still buy into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DC social scene is Chevy Chase Club, Congressional, Columbia. Thats its. No one gives a shit about any other club. The REASON people dont belong to those three are as follows. Dont have connections, or the money.

Woodmont is so gaudy with its new club house its insane. The management is terrible. Lakewood is decent but in a lot of debt and has no money to update the place

Bethesda Country Club is nice but again you belong there because you cant afford anything better. Country clubs are divided among economic status.

You belong to Chevy Chase Club you have bragging rights. A VERY difficult membership process and most do not make it. They do not care about money or who you are. They want to know how you are connected. Even the staff who work at Chevy made it in life. Most have come from very nice clubs around the world just to work at Chevy. The caliber of the staff down to the janitor is excellent.

Actually, no one in DC could give two shots about country clubs. It is an outdated, ridiculously pretentious social model. Everyone I know likes to play the fantastic public courses around the region rather than be stuck playing the same course over and over. Beyond that, there are plenty of restaurants, pools and other opportunities to socialize, rather than be stuck with the WASPY "Chevy" folks, or the Catholic Columbia folks or the Jewish Woodmont folks.

This type of self selected segregation is so 1950's, or 1910's, that it is surprising people still buy into it.

Where are these 'fantastic public courses' you speak of? I am a golfer and I cannot name one public course in the area that is better than the 10th or 15th best private course. I don't know a single golfer that wouldn't rather have a club than bounce around to public courses. The idea is to have friends at different courses so that you can reciprocate.

Plenty of people love the CC model. Go to one of these places from Thursday through Saturday every night of the summer and check out the tennis courts, the golf course, the pool or the clubhouse and tell me that the model is outdated. You have no idea what you are talking about which tells me that you really can't judge whether it is pretentious either - you are just forming opinions about something you know nothing about, and probably are envious in fact.

I disagree with PP that there are only 2-3 good clubs in the entire area, that isn't true - there are lots of options and most of the time, people choose them out of proximity to where they live. We belong to two and there are probably 2-3 others that I would consider joining in different circumstances, but there are plenty of nice neighborhood clubs. Not everybody joins one of these to impress their friends.

[Anonymous]

gee what fun pay tons of money to play the same golf course over and over and over and over oh wait they moved the pin today it is an entirely new course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just reading this thread makes my skin crawl.

Me too. And the exclusionary tone of it all. I cannot imagine being a minority and wanting to join these places.

Because they don't allow members who don't have $100,000 to join?

No - because some clubs don't allow jews or women. In this day, these places should not be allowed to discrimate like that.

Blacks need not apply. Or Hispanics.

What about Asians? Can they skate by?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Country Clubs, Private Schools & Nannies are the reason the upper income feel and claim to be middle class.

The middle class doesn't have money for any of these options.

I'll have to disagree with you on there if you are inluding outside of the D.C. area I live in a large city with a col that is much lower than D.C.'s and many actual middle income people have nannies and yes, they are paid within the correct rate of area, on the books, etc.

Sorry, nannies & private schools are a luxury for the wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess I'm one of those upper middle class blacks in the city, and actually, several of my black friends are members of country clubs. But frankly, my kids go to private school, and in our free time I'd like them to be in a more diverse environment. Plus, we don't golf. All our friends who joined clubs are golfers. We just join a pool for the summer.

Which clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DC social scene is Chevy Chase Club, Congressional, Columbia. Thats its. No one gives a shit about any other club. The REASON people dont belong to those three are as follows. Dont have connections, or the money.

Woodmont is so gaudy with its new club house its insane. The management is terrible. Lakewood is decent but in a lot of debt and has no money to update the place

Bethesda Country Club is nice but again you belong there because you cant afford anything better. Country clubs are divided among economic status.

You belong to Chevy Chase Club you have bragging rights. A VERY difficult membership process and most do not make it. They do not care about money or who you are. They want to know how you are connected. Even the staff who work at Chevy made it in life. Most have come from very nice clubs around the world just to work at Chevy. The caliber of the staff down to the janitor is excellent.

This thread is from 2012.

Her Chevy membership just came through...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DC social scene is Chevy Chase Club, Congressional, Columbia. Thats its. No one gives a shit about any other club. The REASON people dont belong to those three are as follows. Dont have connections, or the money.

Woodmont is so gaudy with its new club house its insane. The management is terrible. Lakewood is decent but in a lot of debt and has no money to update the place

Bethesda Country Club is nice but again you belong there because you cant afford anything better. Country clubs are divided among economic status.

You belong to Chevy Chase Club you have bragging rights. A VERY difficult membership process and most do not make it. They do not care about money or who you are. They want to know how you are connected. Even the staff who work at Chevy made it in life. Most have come from very nice clubs around the world just to work at Chevy. The caliber of the staff down to the janitor is excellent.

Actually, no one in DC could give two shots about country clubs. It is an outdated, ridiculously pretentious social model. Everyone I know likes to play the fantastic public courses around the region rather than be stuck playing the same course over and over. Beyond that, there are plenty of restaurants, pools and other opportunities to socialize, rather than be stuck with the WASPY "Chevy" folks, or the Catholic Columbia folks or the Jewish Woodmont folks.

This type of self selected segregation is so 1950's, or 1910's, that it is surprising people still buy into it.

Where are these 'fantastic public courses' you speak of? I am a golfer and I cannot name one public course in the area that is better than the 10th or 15th best private course. I don't know a single golfer that wouldn't rather have a club than bounce around to public courses. The idea is to have friends at different courses so that you can reciprocate.

Plenty of people love the CC model. Go to one of these places from Thursday through Saturday every night of the summer and check out the tennis courts, the golf course, the pool or the clubhouse and tell me that the model is outdated. You have no idea what you are talking about which tells me that you really can't judge whether it is pretentious either - you are just forming opinions about something you know nothing about, and probably are envious in fact.

I disagree with PP that there are only 2-3 good clubs in the entire area, that isn't true - there are lots of options and most of the time, people choose them out of proximity to where they live. We belong to two and there are probably 2-3 others that I would consider joining in different circumstances, but there are plenty of nice neighborhood clubs. Not everybody joins one of these to impress their friends.

With the exception of Burning Tree, I have played all of the leading CC courses. With the exception of Congressional, I would rather go to any of the Dye courses, or any of the courses out on Route 15 than pay the initiation fee and play these courses over and over. Different strokes. No biggie. Enjoy your club!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Her Chevy membership just came through...

yup - 2 or 3 other old CC threads got resurrected, all extolling the virtus of Chevy. How small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So...what does $600 a month buy you? Do you get unlimited access to the tennis courts, golf course, and pool? Food? Spa stuff? I obviously have no experience with country clubs. Even for the high salaries around here these initiation fees and monthly dues seem so high. Is it mostly about networking, or are the facilities of these places really that awesome? Do they all have restaurants? I guess all the people who go are pretty much rich, right? It's just a different world than the one I live in....

As a general rule, your monthly dues allow unlimited access to almost all facilities with the exception of golf which is an extra cost. Swimming pool, tennis and other facilities are usually included. Restaurants are on site, you pay for what you order and often there is a commitment to spend a certain amount per quarter (or month or year...) at the restaurant, pro shop, etc. I belong to Congressional and yes, the facilities are awesome. Are we rich? Yes by most of the US standards but probably lower upper or upper middle class by DC standards. My parents are wealthy and they are members, I grew up there and my parents paid for each of us kids to be members (part of our wedding gift for each of us). Could I swing it on my own? Heck no... Do we use the club? Yes, we swim there a lot, neither DH or I are big golfers but we go out occasionally. We play a lot of tennis, and socialize. A lot of people that I grew up with are members and a lot of DC's classmates are members so it is part of our social life. Are the people pretty much rich? I never really thought about it but I suppose most are. Quite honestly, I enjoy our membership, I do use it but I also recognize that it can be construed as excessive. I'm really grateful to my parents, I don't think we could have swung it on our own.

So your parents are rich and you're not.

Yawn. If you were old money you'd be at Chevy Chase anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not belong to Congressional but I was chatting with a member of the club the other day who said there is no longer a waiting list for members. She thinks it is due to the economy. Just passing along this information. Perhaps a member of the club can verify for OP.

+1

[Anonymous]

Knowing nothing about CCs, what is the average income of members? Maybe $500K? 200K at the low end?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So...what does $600 a month buy you? Do you get unlimited access to the tennis courts, golf course, and pool? Food? Spa stuff? I obviously have no experience with country clubs. Even for the high salaries around here these initiation fees and monthly dues seem so high. Is it mostly about networking, or are the facilities of these places really that awesome? Do they all have restaurants? I guess all the people who go are pretty much rich, right? It's just a different world than the one I live in....

As a general rule, your monthly dues allow unlimited access to almost all facilities with the exception of golf which is an extra cost. Swimming pool, tennis and other facilities are usually included. Restaurants are on site, you pay for what you order and often there is a commitment to spend a certain amount per quarter (or month or year...) at the restaurant, pro shop, etc. I belong to Congressional and yes, the facilities are awesome. Are we rich? Yes by most of the US standards but probably lower upper or upper middle class by DC standards. My parents are wealthy and they are members, I grew up there and my parents paid for each of us kids to be members (part of our wedding gift for each of us). Could I swing it on my own? Heck no... Do we use the club? Yes, we swim there a lot, neither DH or I are big golfers but we go out occasionally. We play a lot of tennis, and socialize. A lot of people that I grew up with are members and a lot of DC's classmates are members so it is part of our social life. Are the people pretty much rich? I never really thought about it but I suppose most are. Quite honestly, I enjoy our membership, I do use it but I also recognize that it can be construed as excessive. I'm really grateful to my parents, I don't think we could have swung it on our own.

So your parents are rich and you're not.

Yawn. If you were old money you'd be at Chevy Chase anyway.

Not anymore. Chevy is all new money now. They will let in anyone if they are wealthy.