Interesting information.
It's been difficult to determine what's been happening golf-wise locally because the playing field has changed so much. When I moved to my county in 1990, there were three private country clubs and all three were at capacity with waiting lists. The counties first public course opened that summer.
Over the next ten years, four more public courses (some with membership and frequent player options) opened within a wide price range. The clubs started to see attrition as more public options became available.
These past few years have been very difficult for several of the courses. All the private clubs have had significant declines in membership. None had waiting lists and were well below capacity. In February, Swan Creek was closed due to falling membership despite pulling members from surrounding counties because it was so cheap. Many of the members switched to Winters Run, and that club is now at capacity (which is at least good for them.)
As best I can tell, the two cheaper public courses are doing fine and getting good play. The two courses in the $90 range are not doing so well. Rumors abound that both might close. Bulle Rock, an upscale Pete Dye course that hosts the LPGA Championship, is doing fine. Of course the majority of the players there are not local to the county and many, if not most, are even from out-of-state. (The course is within an hour of PA, NJ and DE.)
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out, but it seems obvious that golf course developers seriously overestimated the number of golfers in the county despite the county seeing decent population growth.
Harford County, Maryland Population:
1980 - 145,930
1990 - 182,132
2000 - 218,590
2010 - 257,000 (est)
Private Courses:
Swan Creek Golf & Country Club (1954 - 2008) - $1800/year (single)
Maryland Golf & Country Club (1961 - ) - $6400/year (family, no single offered and $7500 initiation fee)
Winters Run Golf Club (1973 - ) $3400/year (single and $1250 initiation fee)
Public Courses:
Geneva Farms (1990 - ) $37/round
The Wetlands (1995 - ) $52/round
Beechtree (1998 - ) $95/round
Mountain Branch (2000 - ) $99/round
Bulle Rock (1998 - ) $150/round |
