Where would you join? c.10k

milltown

I'm due a windfall shortly and while it should be put away for a rainy day I'm thinking of using some of it to join a club. Share memberships only so that, should the need arise and with enough notice I can get my capital back. I was looking forward to a good discussion on Culchie's thread but he sort of cut it short by flashing his cash!

What I want is a quality course not too far from Lucan (less than 30 mins drive) that will hopefully also have a healthy juniors policy for when my son is growing up.

So far all I can come up with are Millicent and Rathcore. Both courses I thoroughly enjoy playing. Millicent, according to the website, is €12,500 per share and €795 per year. I am waiting to hear back from Rathcore but can't imagine it will be much different judging by the standard green fees.

What would you do?

Poker & Pints

milltown wrote:

I'm due a windfall shortly and while it should be put away for a rainy day I'm thinking of using some of it to join a club. Share memberships only so that, should the need arise and with enough notice I can get my capital back. I was looking forward to a good discussion on Culchie's thread but he sort of cut it short by flashing his cash!

What I want is a quality course not too far from Lucan (less than 30 mins drive) that will hopefully also have a healthy juniors policy for when my son is growing up.

So far all I can come up with are Millicent and Rathcore. Both courses I thoroughly enjoy playing. Millicent, according to the website, is €12,500 per share and €795 per year. I am waiting to hear back from Rathcore but can't imagine it will be much different judging by the standard green fees.

What would you do?

Don't do either of the above! Rathcore is on hard times(18k - way to much) and Millicent is just not a high quality enough(IMO). The best deal right now(although more expensive than your 10k) is Carton House. With the Academy, its new and improved practice facilities, and its 2 courses you will not find a better deal. It is, however, 40k. But judging by Kclub and PGANatl, Carton should be at least twice as much and will eventually get there, I have seen it go up 10k in the last 3 years. If you don't want to manage that, I highly recommend South County(IMO one of the best drainage course in Ireland, making it playable all year): Great course, clubhouse, good practice range, really nice people, good club pro, great food. It is also the type of club which its value can increase and you can make money. They were offering a special earlier in the year. You may want to ring them. I live in Maynooth and it is only 25min away from me. Also, you may want to look at Knightsbrook in Trim. It is an easy drive from Lucan and it is truly a fabulous course. It is already a top course....

I do have one comment on the whole membership thing you should think about: Join a club you will WANT to go to and WILL go to..not just a club you MIGHT go to. IMO you won't want to play Rathcore or Millicent over and over again(neither has enough character and they are kind of far). You will play Carton often, you will get your monies worth, it is close that you can pop over for 9 any day of the week. You get 2 courses of world class quality. You get practice facilities(Driving range, putting, bunkers, chipping) and the Academy as well. If you are going to do it, you might as well do it right. GL

slumped

Do not go near Rathcore.

Grapevine rumours not good.

Why not try Hollystown? They are opening for membership now.

S

milltown

Thanks for the Rathcore warnings guys. What's going on there? Feel free to PM if you don't wish to post on the forum.

Carton is ideal apart from the money. Less than 10 mins away and two top courses. €40k buy in would be a stretch but not as big a problem as the €2,250 annual sub which, afaik, doesn't even include your GUI levy. With a wife and growing kid I just won't get €2,250s worth of golf played in a year. Apart from that, Carton is pitching a lifestyle more than a golf club and it's a lifestyle I can't afford. Perfect example being the prices in the bar!

Hobart

I just joined BlackBush this year. 27 hole course in Rathoath. I bought the membership from an existing member for 7K, current price in 8K from the club. They have an excellent juniors program €70 per annum for the kids. The course is one of the best in the area, and is only bettered by Tara, which is 8-10 miles away.

The membership is currently not a share membership, but they will change that soon (according to the grapvine). I got mine from a member who had taken up an once off €1000 levy some years back which converted your ordinary membership into a share membership. They are investing 2.3m in the club over the next year and they will levy the members for that, there is a proposal for a €130 annual levy over the next 20 years, which will bring the annual sub upto €950 (this includes €150 on the bar). A great club, I could not recommend it highly enough.

Poker & Pints

milltown wrote:

Thanks for the Rathcore warnings guys. What's going on there? Feel free to PM if you don't wish to post on the forum.

Carton is ideal apart from the money. Less than 10 mins away and two top courses. €40k buy in would be a stretch but not as big a problem as the €2,250 annual sub which, afaik, doesn't even include your GUI levy. With a wife and growing kid I just won't get €2,250s worth of golf played in a year. Apart from that, Carton is pitching a lifestyle more than a golf club and it's a lifestyle I can't afford. Perfect example being the prices in the bar!

Then I would say, lease the membership from Carton: I wrote about this before...you can pay th annual sub for someone who is not going to use the membership and you get all the privs of a regular member. This means you can stop when you want and if you quit after a year you have 8k left for whatever. Otherwise south county is it.

Dman_15

Move to donegal

Seriously, I would have to hang up the clubs at Dublin prices. Our sub is €450, last year as a student it was €90. I was p1ssed to even pay the 450
I dont envy your task

Culchie

Knockanally, near Enfield, is a cracking course and share membership would be around that price.

With Dublin expanding the way it is, should be a good investment, I had the opportunity a few years ago, and regretted not doing it.

GreenHorn

Culchie wrote:

Knockanally, near Enfield, is a cracking course and share membership would be around that price.

With Dublin expanding the way it is, should be a good investment, I had the opportunity a few years ago, and regretted not doing it.

Was going to recommend Knockanally myself. Maybe 20 mins from Lucan and a grand course. Played it yesterday in fact and although I played like a big woman I really enjoyed it... Tiny greens - tough targets!

What's the deal with Rathcore? I really like the course I must say. Agree with P&P regarding Millicent. I think it's brutal! I have friends who play there all the time and I don't understand why...

Also, I'm not sure if memberships are available in Killeen but that would be an option as well. I belive the junior membership is only €100? (SwingKing might confirm/deny that) and they have small teeign areas laid out at the start of the fairways for the young uns.

milltown

Just heard back from Rathcore. They're asking €16,500 a share! They won't be getting it from me.

Knockanally looks a good option, possibly top of the pile so far. I have requested details.

South county costs €16,000 and would be a nightmare to reach from Lucan at most times of day.

Leasing a Carton membership would just be a tease and still doesn't get around my problem of playing more than two grand's worth of golf. The suggestion that I would still have 8k left after year one ignores the point in my original post that I am looking to invest capital in a membership that can be recouped should the need arise.

I saw a membership for Killeen advertised in the buy and sell a few months back for €15,000 so probably a bit too dear.

What's people's problem with Millicent? I played it a few times through last winter and the course stood up to the weather better than we did. I find it very varied and enjoyable. The only problem I have with it is it's bloody long and I'm not! When I catch it right I can drive a ball 220 to 240 but for my second shot I have nothing in my bag to go more than ~160yds so I struggle to score on the longer holes. The clubhouse is open now and I think it will only improve as the course matures.

Thanks for all the input so far, keep it coming!

DIEGO WORST

I played Millicent a couple of years ago, I thought it was a nice course. From what I can remember it was fairly short 'cept for maybe the last four holes, with a lot of plotting around water.
At the time I was looking to buy a membership. Like the OP I had a few bob lying around that I wanted to invest. A golf membership seemed like a good idea. As much as I liked Millicent I was put off by the way the share membership worked, in that even if the value of the share increased, you will only ever get back what you invested. Share membership is now €12,500, if that share is sold in 10 years time for say €20,000, you'll receive your €12,500 and the club will get the remaining €7,500.

If you're not too worried about this, at least its better than some clubs in the Dublin area who take a huge initiation fee from which you get back nothing.
There are a few clubs around that offer share membership. For the most part they offer 90% of whatever the share can be sold for.

J.R.HARTLEY

unless i'm mistaken headfort in navan is only 8,000 to get in and it's a smashing club with two good courses

stringy

http://www.turveygolfclub.com/

In Donabate. €8000 limited offer share membership. It's a nice young course. Would solve your problem I reckon.

delboy159

My one word of advice is to keep it close to where you live...

I live in D9 but as I'm from Laois - and will be moving down there in the next few months - I joined the local club in Portlaoise. It's about 1 hour 10 min from Drumcondra on a Saturday morning, but to be honest it was just that little too far away for me. I really regretted not joining Hollystown for the year or so that I was still In Dublin. The cost would have been €450 for Laois against €1,300 for Hollystown, but I would have gotten better value for money from Hollystown as evening use in the summer and late afternoon rounds at the weekends would have been lovely, whereas the 2 and half hour round trip was enough to make the round feel like too much of an effort at times.... Especially when you play as crap is I do

So while I don't have any good recommendations for your money I would advise that its worth paying a bit extra to keep it close to where you are living....

milltown

delboy159 wrote:

My one word of advice is to keep it close to where you live...


So while I don't have any good recommendations for your money I would advise that its worth paying a bit extra to keep it close to where you are living....

Exactly what I was trying to do. My folks are members in Ballinascorney, to my mind a pretty poor 9 hole course but it's 15 mins away from them and they'll go play 9 or 12 holes at the drop of a hat 'cos they can be on on the tee 20 mins after the thought crosses their minds.

With that in mind it really only makes sense to look at clubs within, say, five miles of Lucan heading north, south or east, or maybe twenty miles west heading out the N4.

Just in case anybody's watching this thread for info and ideas, Knockanally rang me this morning. Shares are going for €10 - 11k at the moment and the sub for the year is €1,100 including GUI levy (but no mention of bar credit so it sounds steep to me). The guy said there are several members with more than one share who still have to pay the sub on each one so leasing is always an option too.

Culchie

milltown wrote:

Just in case anybody's watching this thread for info and ideas, Knockanally rang me this morning. Shares are going for €10 - 11k at the moment and the sub for the year is €1,100 including GUI levy (but no mention of bar credit so it sounds steep to me). The guy said there are several members with more than one share who still have to pay the sub on each one so leasing is always an option too.

TBH I think that's excellent value.

It's a great course, that re-invests it's income back into the course, and a very nice membership base.

Dublin will be out on top of Enfield in a few years, so that land is/will be worth zillions.

That's what you should be looking for in a share investment membership.... profit, as well as a good course.

btw, I have nothing to do with the club, but once was a regular green fee player there when I was in Dublin.

badbrian

I know you said the Killeen €15k was more than you wanted to spend but when I saw your post it was the only one I could think of. Really nice course. Nice water features and a nice variance in the holes.
I've only played it 3/4 times but I really like it. I know a guy who plays there - he's not a member but is, for want of a better term, renting his membership (he is paying the annual sub for another share member who is currently not playing).
It might be possible for you to do the same to the end of the year if you wanted to consider it. That way you'd be sure of what you would be getting into.

Hixfunk

Hobart wrote:

I just joined BlackBush this year. 27 hole course in Rathoath. I bought the membership from an existing member for 7K, current price in 8K from the club. They have an excellent juniors program €70 per annum for the kids. The course is one of the best in the area, and is only bettered by Tara, which is 8-10 miles away.

The membership is currently not a share membership, but they will change that soon (according to the grapvine). I got mine from a member who had taken up an once off €1000 levy some years back which converted your ordinary membership into a share membership. They are investing 2.3m in the club over the next year and they will levy the members for that, there is a proposal for a €130 annual levy over the next 20 years, which will bring the annual sub upto €950 (this includes €150 on the bar). A great club, I could not recommend it highly enough.

I played Black Bush A and C yesterday and found it to be a nice course, some of the greens were very well appointed.
I noticed that the club were promoting a referral scheme for their members to entice new sign ups, something like next year for free if you refer a new member. Am very interested in joining this club but don't like the idea of paying 8k for no share. Also, are the club facilitating the sale of memberships?

Golf Pro

I had the same dilemma recently. I heard the rumours about Rathcore but have since heard that it was complete bull....
Have you looked at Dunmurry Springs near Kildare Town. It's a top quality course but possibly a bit tough if you are a beginner. I got a letter from them last week to say they are introducing different memberships from €5000 to €18500.

Hobart

Hixfunk wrote:

I played Black Bush A and C yesterday and found it to be a nice course, some of the greens were very well appointed.
I noticed that the club were promoting a referral scheme for their members to entice new sign ups, something like next year for free if you refer a new member. Am very interested in joining this club but don't like the idea of paying 8k for no share. Also, are the club facilitating the sale of memberships?

You missed the best 9 . The B nine is very good.As for the no share, they are currently looking at a number of way's a levying members, as they intend to upgrade the club and and the changing rooms. Many years ago they introduced a one off payment to convert your ordinary membership into a redeemable share option. It was a huge success.

The feeling is, that they will re-introduce that this year or early next year.

The club will sell you a membership, at a cost of €8. But, you are much better off putting a notice up on the board saying that you are interested in buying a membership. You will save yourself 1-1.5K in doing this.

Hixfunk

Thanks for the info Hobart. I'll keep you updated on my progress in joining.
I have played C course before, hate the damn 3rd long par 5. I always John Daly it with my second shot and see a distant splash when I think I'll be putting for eagle:D