DFW ClubCorp Courses

[debashish12]

Moving to the DFW area soon. Was looking at different clubs and came across the ClubCorp system and was a really big fan of all the benefits with a ClubCorp club. Is anyone a member at a specific club? I was looking at Trophy Club and Stonebridge Ranch. 

 

What would you say the rankings are on the best ClubCorp clubs in the DFW area regardless of price?

[North Texas]

14 hours ago, debashish12 said:

Moving to the DFW area soon. Was looking at different clubs and came across the ClubCorp system and was a really big fan of all the benefits with a ClubCorp club. Is anyone a member at a specific club? I was looking at Trophy Club and Stonebridge Ranch. 

 

What would you say the rankings are on the best ClubCorp clubs in the DFW area regardless of price?

 

Most people will probably say one of Stonebriar, TPC Craig Ranch, and Stonebridge Dye Course are the best ClubCorp clubs in the DFW area. 

[dfwgolf123]

They are making Stonebriar the "premier" club and in addition to the the other 2 mentioned Glen Eagles is also considered tier 1. I've played all and am a member if you have any questions.

 

Just keep in mind Club Corp is ran by a private equity group and their #1 goal is to maximize profit which means trying to squeeze more money out of members and pay the staff as little as possible. No one really uses all those "benefits" which you probably see online. 

 

 

[debashish12]

2 hours ago, dfwgolf123 said:

They are making Stonebriar the "premier" club and in addition to the the other 2 mentioned Glen Eagles is also considered tier 1. I've played all and am a member if you have any questions.

 

Just keep in mind Club Corp is ran by a private equity group and their #1 goal is to maximize profit which means trying to squeeze more money out of members and pay the staff as little as possible. No one really uses all those "benefits" which you probably see online. 

 

 

The benefits that I saw that attracted me the most was the ability to play other clubcorp courses for free, is this really as good as it sounds? Ive also heard a lot of people say that they are unhappy with clubcorp, do you know why that is?

[560ti]

Would avoid clubcorp like the plague. Going to try to address a few things

 

1. Stuff like "50% off food" and "play at any club" is extremely misleading. Food is either garbage or they finally get a good chef and he leaves for something better. Play at any club doesn't work when each club has like 2000 members (Clubcorp doesn't put caps on the clubs, they want more paying members then what they can actually accomodate). Good luck getting a decent tee time at another course when all those members have priority over you + there trying to fill 300 slots a day 

 

2. DFW is one of the best in the nation for public courses, most of which are actually less busy then the country clubs and a fraction of the price (funny that). Collin county alone has 2 public courses that are fringe tier 1 quality (Old american and Tribute), 2 more tier 1 courses on the way (PGA heaquarters) and 2 city courses that are better than most of clubcorps tier 2 (Course 1 at Sherrill Park and Pecan Hollow). Other options for small day trips are courses like Cowboys Club and Texas Star. 

 

3. Clubcorp itself is garabage. Low pay, high staff turnover, and they cram as many members as possible into the club (on top of charging you a seperate fee for literally any club sponsored social event which should be included in the price of the membership, it is at all real country clubs).  None of these 3 things are "country club" or "exclusive". I remember trying out Prestonwood with a member and the entire range was filled with people who weren't even members at that club. Practice area could maybe accodamate 20 people but of course clubcorp has like 1500+ members on autodraft (shocker). We'll range is a a no go let's try the dining hall ? Nope sorry clubcorp rented it out to an outside group that isn't even a member. Does any of this sound like a country club to you or does it sound like a company that's literally just in it to make a buck ? 

 

4. If your a retiree and your house backs up to stonebriar  ? Yeah you could probably find enough value in playing golf everyday. Have a full time career and just want a place to decompress a few times a week ? Awful value. I personally would never pay this amount of money unless it was for a real country club like Royal Oaks, Northwood, Bent Tree.......ect  

[dfwgolf123]

13 hours ago, 560ti said:

Would avoid clubcorp like the plague. Going to try to address a few things

 

1. Stuff like "50% off food" and "play at any club" is extremely misleading. Food is either garbage or they finally get a good chef and he leaves for something better. Play at any club doesn't work when each club has like 2000 members (Clubcorp doesn't put caps on the clubs, they want more paying members then what they can actually accomodate). Good luck getting a decent tee time at another course when all those members have priority over you + there trying to fill 300 slots a day 

 

2. DFW is one of the best in the nation for public courses, most of which are actually less busy then the country clubs and a fraction of the price (funny that). Collin county alone has 2 public courses that are fringe tier 1 quality (Old american and Tribute), 2 more tier 1 courses on the way (PGA heaquarters) and 2 city courses that are better than most of clubcorps tier 2 (Course 1 at Sherrill Park and Pecan Hollow). Other options for small day trips are courses like Cowboys Club and Texas Star. 

 

3. Clubcorp itself is garabage. Low pay, high staff turnover, and they cram as many members as possible into the club (on top of charging you a seperate fee for literally any club sponsored social event which should be included in the price of the membership, it is at all real country clubs).  None of these 3 things are "country club" or "exclusive". I remember trying out Prestonwood with a member and the entire range was filled with people who weren't even members at that club. Practice area could maybe accodamate 20 people but of course clubcorp has like 1500+ members on autodraft (shocker). We'll range is a a no go let's try the dining hall ? Nope sorry clubcorp rented it out to an outside group that isn't even a member. Does any of this sound like a country club to you or does it sound like a company that's literally just in it to make a buck ? 

 

4. If your a retiree and your house backs up to stonebriar  ? Yeah you could probably find enough value in playing golf everyday. Have a full time career and just want a place to decompress a few times a week ? Awful value. I personally would never pay this amount of money unless it was for a real country club like Royal Oaks, Northwood, Bent Tree.......ect  

I'll second that

[debashish12]

On 9/6/2020 at 5:59 PM, 560ti said:

Would avoid clubcorp like the plague. Going to try to address a few things

 

1. Stuff like "50% off food" and "play at any club" is extremely misleading. Food is either garbage or they finally get a good chef and he leaves for something better. Play at any club doesn't work when each club has like 2000 members (Clubcorp doesn't put caps on the clubs, they want more paying members then what they can actually accomodate). Good luck getting a decent tee time at another course when all those members have priority over you + there trying to fill 300 slots a day 

 

2. DFW is one of the best in the nation for public courses, most of which are actually less busy then the country clubs and a fraction of the price (funny that). Collin county alone has 2 public courses that are fringe tier 1 quality (Old american and Tribute), 2 more tier 1 courses on the way (PGA heaquarters) and 2 city courses that are better than most of clubcorps tier 2 (Course 1 at Sherrill Park and Pecan Hollow). Other options for small day trips are courses like Cowboys Club and Texas Star. 

 

3. Clubcorp itself is garabage. Low pay, high staff turnover, and they cram as many members as possible into the club (on top of charging you a seperate fee for literally any club sponsored social event which should be included in the price of the membership, it is at all real country clubs).  None of these 3 things are "country club" or "exclusive". I remember trying out Prestonwood with a member and the entire range was filled with people who weren't even members at that club. Practice area could maybe accodamate 20 people but of course clubcorp has like 1500+ members on autodraft (shocker). We'll range is a a no go let's try the dining hall ? Nope sorry clubcorp rented it out to an outside group that isn't even a member. Does any of this sound like a country club to you or does it sound like a company that's literally just in it to make a buck ? 

 

4. If your a retiree and your house backs up to stonebriar  ? Yeah you could probably find enough value in playing golf everyday. Have a full time career and just want a place to decompress a few times a week ? Awful value. I personally would never pay this amount of money unless it was for a real country club like Royal Oaks, Northwood, Bent Tree.......ect  

how difficult is it really to get a tee time at my home course? Im looking to play 5-6 times a week around noon 

adding on to this how difficult is getting a tee time at another clubcorp course as I would like to play a different course every now and then 

 

also what would you recommend for country clubs around the same price as Trophy Club? Would love a club with two courses in nice condition

Edited September 8, 2020 by debashish12

[oneunderbogey]

I will disagree and say if you are playing midweek around noon and want to play different courses ClubCorp could be a good choice.  If you are a Fri / Sat / Sun morning person it can be a nightmare.  You should know what you are getting into though, which is a corporate run golf system not an equity country club experience.  Pros of that are no assessments and being able to play in the system.  Negatives are covered well above.  From a golf standpoint I would rank the clubs:

 

1. Stonebridge Ranch - Dye

2. TPC Craig Ranch

3. Stonebriar 

4. Gleneagles

5. Timmaaron 

 

Have not played trophy club, from what I have heard I would expect it would fit in somewhere 4-6.  After that I think there is a good size big gap before the rest of the ClubCorp DFW clubs. 

[callawayjay]

One of the 18s at TC is closed for an update. So there’s 1500 members for 18 holes right now. 

[560ti]

15 hours ago, debashish12 said:

 

also what would you recommend for country clubs around the same price as Trophy Club? Would love a club with two courses in nice condition

If you want trophy club prices then you can scratch Craig ranch, Stonebriar, and gleneagles off your list. All three of them will be way way higher initiation fees (25-35k versus only 4 or 5k for TC). 

 

Prestonwood is slightly cheaper than TC and has two courses but the two courses aren't technically on the same property, they're pretty close to each other though. Stonebridge is two courses but I don't know what the initiation fee for the dye course in particular is, they list it as $10,000 and I'm assuming that's access to both courses ? 

 

 

You then get to the issue to where if you sign at one of these cheaper courses they probably won't give you access to the premier courses so you're basically just paying to play on really nice city courses 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by 560ti

[oneunderbogey]

I think Stonebridge is 10k/800 roughly to get both courses, which you would want. No point in joining there without the dye course. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by oneunderbogey

[North Texas]

12 hours ago, oneunderbogey said:

I think Stonebridge is 10k/800 roughly to get both courses, which you would want. No point in joining there without the dye course. 

 

Friend of mine is a member at Stonebridge. ClubCorp has made numerous changes to the membership there just in the last month or so. I don't know the details but supposedly numerous people have been checking out other courses to move to. 

[tlehmann]

You'd be better off starting with non club corp clubs first and working your way back from there.  Depends on where in DFW you will be

[robdalky]

First things first... where are you living and what is your budget? DFW is huge and one course might be 60-90 minutes away from another depending on traffic. Where you settle down will narrow your choices significantly.. maybe a little more info and we can shed some light on what your best options are.

 

i will say DFW is a great place to be able to play golf year round... welcome

[LeftyTPH]

DFW has great public tracks. I've only played a couple Club Corp courses but would much rather play the publics than be a Club Corp member. I'm in FW btw. 

 

https://myavidgolfer.com/cover-story-best-of-public-2019/

[debashish12]

On 9/11/2020 at 11:43 PM, robdalky said:

First things first... where are you living and what is your budget? DFW is huge and one course might be 60-90 minutes away from another depending on traffic. Where you settle down will narrow your choices significantly.. maybe a little more info and we can shed some light on what your best options are.

 

i will say DFW is a great place to be able to play golf year round... welcome

Looking at frisco/mckinney area

[560ti]

On 9/6/2020 at 8:42 AM, dfwgolf123 said:

They are making Stonebriar the "premier" club

Didn't they do the same thing to Craig Ranch ? They made it a "premier" to restrict tier 1s from coming over in hoards ? 

[dfwgolf123]

9 hours ago, 560ti said:

Didn't they do the same thing to Craig Ranch ? They made it a "premier" to restrict tier 1s from coming over in hoards ? 

To limit pissing off the members many of whom were former CC elsewhere, they made a deal on no reciprocal play. We can't go there and they can't come to ours, even if you are a tier 1. 

 

 

[North Texas]

11 minutes ago, dfwgolf123 said:

To limit pissing off the members many of whom were former CC elsewhere, they made a deal on no reciprocal play. We can't go there and they can't come to ours, even if you are a tier 1. 

 

 

 

And now the members are pissed that they are having the Byron Nelson there next year. They were not for it according to a member I know.

[560ti]

On 9/19/2020 at 8:14 AM, dfwgolf123 said:

To limit pissing off the members many of whom were former CC elsewhere, they made a deal on no reciprocal play. We can't go there and they can't come to ours, even if you are a tier 1. 

 

 

I bet everyone is pissed. I bet this equally pisses off Glen Eagles members (paying 35k initiation + 900 a month and clubcorp is basically telling you "sorry you can't play stonebriar or craig ranch anymore, have fun playing brookhaven and canyon creek"). 

 

On 9/19/2020 at 8:28 AM, North Texas said:

 

And now the members are pissed that they are having the Byron Nelson there next year. They were not for it according to a member I know.

 

I've known people who have played Craig Ranch before Clubcorp bought it and they said it was bleeding money. Everytime they played the entire facility was a ghost town. Funny that the old timers where first pissed that clubcorp bought it and now there pissed that there is a PGA tournament there. It's like sorry old timer there not going to go back to the days of losing money 

[560ti]

On 9/17/2020 at 1:52 AM, debashish12 said:

Looking at frisco/mckinney area

As you can tell from this thread clubcorp isn't really looking like a winner. Top 3 courses in Collin County are out of your price range and the 4th best course members are fleeing + it wouldn't get you access to the other 3 

[oneunderbogey]

I played Craig Ranch a month ago, only course I played during the pandemic that wasn't busy.  It was a friday too.  Its nice but not amazing, Stonebridge Dye is better and about the same price.  

[dfwgolf123]

Here it is Friday AM and I'm trying to make a tee time for the following Friday as the sheet opens at 7:30am 7 days in advance on weekdays. At 8:05am I am too late and 10:50am -1:20pm is already booked solid. This is Clubcorp. 

[oneunderbogey]

What course is that bad?  Not nearly that bad in the Houston area. 

[callawayjay]

18 hours ago, oneunderbogey said:

What course is that bad?  Not nearly that bad in the Houston area. 

All mid tier CC courses are that bad 

[dfwgolf123]

On 9/25/2020 at 7:10 PM, oneunderbogey said:

What course is that bad?  Not nearly that bad in the Houston area. 

One whose initiation is now more than $40k and in DFW

[LeftyTPH]

That’s awful 

[debashish12]

On 9/25/2020 at 8:14 AM, dfwgolf123 said:

Here it is Friday AM and I'm trying to make a tee time for the following Friday as the sheet opens at 7:30am 7 days in advance on weekdays. At 8:05am I am too late and 10:50am -1:20pm is already booked solid. This is Clubcorp. 

that sounds awful, i wouldn't be playing much on weekends. How do morning tee times look during the week or are those just as difficult too?

[dfwgolf123]

7 hours ago, debashish12 said:

that sounds awful, i wouldn't be playing much on weekends. How do morning tee times look during the week or are those just as difficult too?

Ask to see the tee sheet wherever you consider to see how packed or open it looks. Also look at intervals, are they 8 or 10 mins or something else?

 

Monday or Tuesday are the days Clubcorp likes to close to members so they can sell the course for outside tournaments "maintenance days" so your course will only be open 6 days a week.

 

It's Thursday and this is what next week looks like...

 

Mon - closed

Tue - 2:50 first available

Wed - 11:30 first available

Thur - tee sheet opens in 15 mins