Any Lakeside Country Club members on here? I am looking to join Lakeside as my family and I just moved to Memorial. Not knowing any members at the moment I thought I would turn to power of the Aggie Network. Thank you in advance.

There was a time (might still be the case), when they required a referral letter. They even asked one of Mark O'Meara. O'Meara had Arnold Palmer write one for him.

Edited for being an idiot…

Not a member myself as I'm skeptical of joining any club that would have me as a member. However, I've got lots of friends who are members there and it sounds like a swinging good time!

I think they're about to start re-doing the course so big assessment coming and not being able to play golf there for an extended period of time would suck. Otherwise, the clubhouse and facilities are top notch. If I had kids and CC's were my thing I would definitely join.

polsaggie said:

---

Any Lakeside Country Club members on here? I am looking to join Lakeside as my family and I just moved to Memorial. Not knowing any members at the moment I thought I would turn to power of the Aggie Network. Thank you in advance.

---

I think they may require a member letter from a current member as well as a handicap. I have a handful of buddies who have memberships. From a good friend who is a member I think there is better value at other clubs for what you have to pay. He said on the weekends it's always packed. However like the posted above me said, for kids and such it's a great place.

I think there already is a big assessment on top of membership fees to Chip in for the new clubhouse.

The tee sheet is always jammed up. Great club and good people. Assessment for clubhouse and another one coming for course. Waiting line for membership currently.

Sorry but the English Nazi in me has to point out that the correct spelling is write not right.

Wow, what a brain fart on my part.

I know more than several members and they always complain about getting a tee time but otherwise it is a fantastic club with the clubhouse renovation and has great membership. About to be better with the golf course redo. But with 1K+ members and 18 holes I don't see the ease of getting tee times improving.

cab559 said:

---

I know more than several members and they always complain about getting a tee time but otherwise it is a fantastic club with the clubhouse renovation and has great membership. About to be better with the golf course redo. But with 1K+ members and 18 holes I don't see the ease of getting tee times improving.

---

Yeah, unless your job allows for quite a bit of weekday golf, I don't see it being worth it. If you're looking for a strictly golf membership, Westwood is a great value.

My brother in law is a member there, and we meet them out there every now and then. It's nice, but not something I'd ever pay for, but I don't have kids and don't play golf that much any more.

The demand for golf has exploded. Memberships at the clubs I know are booming which puts pressure on tee times, facilities, etc. I would expect private clubs to try and limit guest play by raising rates and putting a strict limit on how many times per year a guest can play. I think they'll take the stance that if you want to play private club golf join a private club.

I don't know anything about Lakeside but I personally would be very wary of joining a club where they can assess you for improvements.

jja79 said:

---

The demand for golf has exploded.

---

is it really? would be the first increase in greens activity since '97 if that's the case. What do you base this on?

bularry said:

---

jja79 said:

---

The demand for golf has exploded.

---

is it really? would be the first increase in greens activity since '97 if that's the case. What do you base this on?

---

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/national-golf-foundation-reports-numbers-for-2020-were-record-se

The fact you have to book a tee time for anywhere about a week out. Seriously...You're SOL if you're waiting until Monday to find a tee time for that weekend.

It's ridiculous and has been since COVID lockdowns started 2 years ago and the golf course was the only thing open.

I don't know anything about Lakeside and have never been there but the people who are members or friends of members there have said here that it's tough getting tee times in part due to increased membership.

At the club where I'm a member I have never even thought of needing a tee time until 2020 (that covers 14 years). Seldom were there more than 30 rounds per day. Sunday there were 112 tee times reserved on their app. Everywhere I know has raised guest fees in hopes of holding more times for members.

https://www.golfdatatech.com/2022/01/2021-national-golf-rounds-played/

https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/article/golf-numbers-2020-rounds-played/

I have 4-5 friends out there.

1 - Be ready to pay. Members received a ~$20k assessment when the club flooded due to Harvey in 2017. They are about to be assessed another $20-25k to renovate the course. Current initiation is probably close to $100k, and not sure that includes the course renovation.

2 - Not great for just golf. As mentioned, the club only has 18 holes and its awful on the weekends. Essentially a lottery for Sat/Sun morning tee times. Have multiple friends that have now not been able to get into the Member-Guest 2 years in a row. That's a fortune to pay and not be able to play by far the biggest and best event of the year. In fact, if my friend doesn't get in this year, he is quitting. Not paying $25k for a course where he can't get into the best event of the year.

3 - After the club redo after Harvey, facilities are awesome. Restaurant there is as good as any steakhouse in town.

This is the reason I would shy away from a club where you're at risk of having to make capital improvements.

I'm not a club guy so curious about how they make capital improvements at a private club if they don't charge it to the members. I would suspect you're either going to pay for it in your dues anyway, or have a run down club.

Several ways to operate a club. One is to have owners so rich they fund all the improvements and bump the dues. If they're transparent it's a good way to go and has been satisfactory to me. The next is something like Blue Jack which is a real estate company trying to sell lots by having a golf course. 7 or 8 years in and they still don't have a clubhouse but I understand they have had some dues increases. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the equity approach, it just doesn't appeal to me. I probably don't have any business belonging to a country club but I don't want to be worried about a $20K hit if it rains too much.

I'm ok with the $40/month increase we had this year given what I feel confident they spent on improvements.

What do they have for kids at these country clubs? Mom had a membership as Westside back when it was a tennis club and I liked taking my daughter to swim and see the monkeys when they first came in.

assuming we're not talking about an amenity where the developer is eating the capital in the short-term, I just don't know how you're going to do major capex projects without the money coming from somewhere.

$40/month ain't going to build a new clubhouse

drumboy said:

---

What do they have for kids at these country clubs? Mom had a membership as Westside back when it was a tennis club and I liked taking my daughter to swim and see the monkeys when they first came in.

---

helps to teach the kids who the right people to socialize with are. Can't put a price on that.

David_Puddy said:

---

If you're looking for a strictly golf membership, Westwood is a great value.

---

If you have the right owner's it goes a long way. The only reason they raise the dues I think sometimes is to see if we're still paying attention. This is a situation where the owner's know they have to write a big check each December to balance the books. It's not typical but there are clubs like this.

well yeah, I'm sure that's nice and all, but your advice seems to be "join a club where a bunch of rich idiots subsidize everyone else". I don't think there are a ton of those out there.

Hes referring to Houston Oaks I believe and the owners invest a significant amount of money into the club and facilities. What they are doing how is quite impressive with new facilities, new pools, etc

Initiation and monthly dues went up a bit and will go up again at the end of this year

Hes referring to Houston Oaks I believe and the owners invest a significant amount of money into the club and facilities. What they are doing now is quite impressive with new facilities, new pools, etc

Initiation and monthly dues went up a bit and will go up again at the end of this year

Diggity said:

---

well yeah, I'm sure that's nice and all, but your advice seems to be "join a club where a bunch of rich idiots subsidize everyone else". I don't think there are a ton of those out there.

---

Yeah, I could be wrong but I don't think many rich people like to just throw away money so the public can have a cheap country club. Most rich people don't get rich by being dumb and overly generous.

Aggie369 said:

---

Hes referring to Houston Oaks I believe and the owners invest a significant amount of money into the club and facilities. What they are doing now is quite impressive with new facilities, new pools, etc

Initiation and monthly dues went up a bit and will go up again at the end of this year

---

He's referring to it and also leaving out the part where he got in early for basically nothing relative to what it costs to join Houston Oaks today..."Rich guy" funds club is the exception, not the norm. Talking down clubs that don't have that seems a little disingenuous. Houston Oaks is awesome but it's not a typical place and for someone that lives in the city is completely impractical as your primary club.

The reality is if you live inside Houston proper and want country club access and something nice, you are going to have to pay big $$$'s and deal with tougher tee time situations.

Lakeside tee time access is not as bad as this thread makes it out to be, fwiw. Yes, you can't always just call up there and get a tee time for the next day on a Friday or a Saturday, but if you plan ahead you can have a lot of success getting tee times.

jja79 said:

---

This is the reason I would shy away from a club where you're at risk of having to make capital improvements.

---

Assessments are normal at member-owned clubs. Just need to make sure your budget fits with the membership profile. My club knows that a $5,000+ assessment will run off 1/4 of the members. We generally limit assessments to about $2,000. I think our sprinkler replacement was $800/year for 3 years.

The alternative are for-profit clubs that are owned by corporations. Generally those club deteriorate over time bc profitability comes first.

I wasn't giving anyone advice. I said I'd shy away from a club where you might be assessed.

I'm very happy with my decision to get in on the ground floor years ago. Turned out well for me but might not have. The most surprising thing to me is the percentage of membership that lives in Memorial and ITL. Might even be the majority.

I wasn't being critical of Lakeside. I've never been there. I was just commenting that the possibility of being assessed doesn't appeal to me when other options exist in the same price range.

Diggity said:

---

drumboy said:

---

What do they have for kids at these country clubs? Mom had a membership as Westside back when it was a tennis club and I liked taking my daughter to swim and see the monkeys when they first came in.

---

helps to teach the kids who the right people to socialize with are. Can't put a price on that.

---

"Son, those people use hand push carts. We don't associate with their type."