Any reasonably priced private country clubs near DC?

Under99 · August 12, 2008

country club

Thinking of moving to the DC area in January, leaving behind my local club.

Seeing the cost of public courses has me worried, so I'm wondering if there are any low-initiation private clubs near DC for under, say, $400/month for a single?

Here in the Midwest clubs are either waiving initiation fees or lowering them, but I don't know if that's the case near DC. Appreciate any general thoughts in that regard.

Appreciate any thoughts.

jaybez101099 · December 25, 2008

If you want to drive say 45mins out of D.C. check out Sparrows Point Country club(east baltimore county). Nice little gem with low fees plus you get 27holes......low membership so easy tee times.

Food also top notch....

CongoTerp · January 27, 2009

Where will you be living?

golframfan · January 27, 2009

yeah where in DC??? you could look at springfield country club, but not sure how much their initiation is, its sweet though... They hold a huge JR. tournament every year

seamusthemick · January 29, 2009

Also more in the Baltimore area, but also convenient to northern DC suburbs, is Piney Branch a solid golf course that's in terrific shape there running a membership special.

www.pineybranchgolf.com Just looked, 3500 initiation, so not a steal but a good deal.

CongoTerp · January 29, 2009

Also more in the Baltimore area, but also convenient to northern DC suburbs, is Piney Branch a solid golf course that's in terrific shape there running a membership special.
www.pineybranchgolf.com Just looked, 3500 initiation, so not a steal but a good deal.

I thought PineyBranch is in Finksburg, which is way north of Baltimore and would be at least 1 1/2 hr from DC.

If you are in the MD suburbs, I would suggest the following Country Clubs which are reasonably priced and likely to be offering deals these days (1) CC at Woodmore - great Arnold Palmer track which has hosted some events, Sr Tour, US Sr Open Qualifying, Nationwide tour (2) Argyle CC (3) Norbeck..If further out towards Baltimore the Hobits Glen in Columbia is good. Some of the Public Courses where you can "join" (1)The University of Maryland Course is just getting redone and is a fun track (2) Glen Dale, short but a great gamblers course w/ trick greens

and on the upscale public list: PB Dye and Worthington Manor might still offer memberships. If you've got more coin then 4 Streams is the ticket.

Carolina Golfer 2 · January 29, 2009

Thinking of moving to the DC area in January, leaving behind my local club.

Seeing the cost of public courses has me worried, so I'm wondering if there are any low-initiation private clubs near DC for under, say, $400/month for a single?

Here in the Midwest clubs are either waiving initiation fees or lowering them, but I don't know if that's the case near DC. Appreciate any general thoughts in that regard.

Appreciate any thoughts.

If you want CLOSE to DC and affordable, you might want to check out Tantallon Country Club in Fort Washington. It is about 10 miles south of the city right on the Maryland/DC/VA border line. I have not played the course in a few years, but I have heard it went though major improvements to the course, clubhouse, tennis and swimming facilities.

The course itself is like most country clubs, it won't beat you up with length, accuracy is more important than pure length. The 9th hole is a short par 3 where the green sits below the clubhouse and patio, for all the members to watch everyone come through the turn. Again you'd have to check it out persoanlly as I have not seen the finished product.

But I do know they were having some great initiation offers.

seamusthemick · January 30, 2009

Piney Branch is actually just south of Hampstead MD and not convenient from DC but not too far from say, Columbia (40 min). Tantallon is a nice find, membership rates are incredibly cheap.

CongoTerp · January 30, 2009

We need to hear back from Under99 to se if he's making it to town and where it is that he will be living before we can actually pick out his new club :welcomeani:

Munich77 · July 30, 2009

Sorry to bring back this thread, but I noticed that Norbeck CC has some really good deals. What is the club like? Any bad things about it?

As a follow-up, I took a look at Norbeck last weekend. The renovated parts of the clubhouse are great. The course is nice too. A couple of holes have a lot of elevation changes, the rest is pretty flat. Definitely has some holes that hare hard to play but generally the fairways are wide so an errant tee shot does not go way wrong. The greens are small and fast.

I wonder does anyone know anything else about the club?

mike03a3 · April 14, 2010

My wife and I are looking around for a club in the Northern Virginia area. We live next to Reston, near Lake Fairfax. Since we are about to retire, we are interested in any nice courses that are offering good deals, or even waiving completely, initiation fees. We plan on playing a lot, but being retired will be able to play often during the week as well as on weekends.

Any suggestions?

ggammell · April 14, 2010

I beleive Piedmont in Haymarket area is offerng some deals. There are a few with reduced initiations or initiations payable over two years in the area.

What you'll want to do is sign up GolfStyles, it's a free magazine that covers DC area golf and they are very informative on the private club scene.

JJCOOP7 · April 19, 2010

I grew up in Reston.

I know that Reston National has memberships that you can join, but it is a semi-private course. The course is good and gets a lot of traffic because of the close location.

Hidden Creek country club is by Reston Town Center and has a great course that winds in between the town homes in Reston.

The Piedmont course the gentleman spoke of is a great course, but it is about a 45 min drive. My parents live and belong to Dominion Valley Country Club which is right across the street from Piedmont, so I am very used to that drive.

International Country Club is off of rt 50 and is a great course and just re did their club house, so if you want the full country club deal, I would look into that.

If you are retired military, you should look into Army/Navy country club. They have 27 holes in Fairfax and 18 holes in Arlington. That is a too good to be true deal if you can get in the door.

good hunting!

mike03a3 · April 21, 2010

Thanks for the replies. Hidden Creek is the closest to our home. We've played Reston Natonal, but it's pretty heavily used. I'll check out Piedmont and International.

thechief16 · May 18, 2010

Hidden Creek is advertising no initiation fee, $2000 joining bonus and no assessment. Not sure what the hooks are, but it's a decent course. If I lived a little closer, I might be able to talk to wife into looking into it. But as it is, we are walking distance to our current swim & tennis club, so its a tough sell.