Houston Area Country Clubs

There was a big thread on this in the last year..might be worth searching for. Here’s what I know;

Lakeside- $120k non equity buy in and 3 year wait list…over 1000 members and basically the new money scene in Houston.

Royal Oaks - $45k buy in but not as many members…gated community in bad part of town

Braeburn - $45k buy in and recently redone course…also surrounded by shitty area…tons of west u families.

Westwood - not sure on initiation but it’s the old Jesish club also surrounded by the ghetto…nice course and don’t know much else

Pine forest / $10-15k buy in, 27 holes and folks from wide range of areas. Not easy to get to especially in afternoon traffic coming from east or south

Sugar creek - $15k initiation, 27 holes and good neighborhood but kinda far out there.

Riverbend - not sure on costs but I’ve heard it’s more serious golfers and less family oriented as it’s neighbor sugar creek

Hearthstone - no idea

Willowfork - no idea

Blackhawk - not sure on financials but good course and used to be part of network who also owned other clubs like black horse, Gokf club of Houston, etc. has a neighboring cub shadow hawk that is much higher initiation and more exclusive but I don’t recall a big improvement in the course.

Willowfork - no idea

Bluejack National (Tiger’s deal) ; if you’re an OT baller . Up in Magnolia , though. Got to play it once.

What are you looking for, where is your work location, and how wealthy are you? If I was on the west side, again depending exactly where, I’d look at Champions and Brae Burn. Those are both golf course centric and tailor to better players serious about golf. Royal Oaks isn’t in that bad of a part of town. It’s nice but just meh. Shadow Hawk and Houston Country Club are really good options too, but you’re probably not getting into the latter. We really need more information to give you a better recommendation.

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Anyone know fees or recs for: Woodforest Lake Windcrest Woodlands CC

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Lake windcrest is public now, I would think very minimum to “join”

Woodlands has 3 tiers full with access to all courses all the time is up to 55 initiation with around 1400 monthly, middle tier is Palmer and resort courses only with weekend access 25k, bottom is resort and Palmer only no weekends not sure on that one.

Have a friend that’s a member at Woodforest, know it’s gone up significantly as well but not sure on the numbers

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bopper50

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Slight hijack but we'll be in Houston the end of this month and my son wants to play Tour 18 in Humble. Is it worth it or would you recommend something else. He's a 15 hcp and I'm a little better than that.

Windcrest is public?

Substantially better courses to play. If you are out that way then go play Highland Pines.

Highland Pines

Agree highland pines is the nicest public option north of Houston

If you have never played Tour 18, I would say play it for the novelty of it.

You can check out GolfNow Houston, sometimes they have deals on Tour18 and the Golf Club of Houston where they use to play the Houston Open a couple of years ago.

A few updates on costs as I know them now. I am a Black Hawk member and have been for about 12 years. The management team that owns Black Hawk, Shadow Hawk, GCOH and Black Horse courses has over those years taken away many employees, raised fees considerably (understandable if you maintain service level) and overall dumbed down the courses to save money on maintenance.

GCOH - I play here all the time with a large distribution group (70+ guys), we usually have 3-4 tee times at least 4 days a week and just recently everyone put management on notice that if they didn’t perform substantially better that a good portion of that group would be looking at other properties.

I would put a pause on joining GCOH until the commit to make it what it was and should be. Currently there is no golf professional and every time they land one that person leaves in 12-18 month to either be head somewhere else or even go back to being an assistant.

Braeburn - 3 miles from my home. 55k now and have a board meeting very soon to discuss going to 75k cause they want to keep up with the jones’ and build a new clubhouse at about 40m.

Lakeside - I haven’t turned in my application but when enquiring through friends that would sponsor me it is 115k. Tee times are ok during the week but on the weekend you don’t know when you will play until about a day before. Hard to make plans when you could play at 7am or 11am.

Champions - one of my GCOH friends recently joined at 37,500. Wonderful courses with a TON of single digit sticks but hard to get to the location. If you live in the area that is a different thing.

Blue Jack National - have played in member/guest and a good dozen other times. I believe it is currently 180k, 18k annually paid in January upfront and open about 11 months per year. Wonderful agronomy and service but way the F out of Houston. Not practicable if you want to practice.

RIver Oaks - 5-6 period of doing social events with sponsor and you still might not get in.

Houston CC - don’t know anything about it.

Houston Oaks - out NW side of town. Wonderful property and amenities but be prepared to pay anywhere between 175-220k to walk in the door.

Westwood/Riverbend etc are nice courses with good golfing groups. I don’t know their fees as they aren’t the kind of club I was looking for in the past.

Royal Oaks - excellent facilities, great pool area for kids, golf course in good shape but surrounded by homes everywhere. I work out here with a TPI instructor and when asked if I wanted to join they told me it was 45k initiation. That was late 2021. Don’t think it has gone up.

Carlton Woods - only have 3 friends here and they all joined years ago for around 30k because they live in Houston. Good tracks with very wonderful clubhouse.

Other Woodlands courses - have played them but don’t know their fees but I believe they are part of a management company as well and I don’t want to join that kind of property anymore.

Woodforest - recently private I believe and is owned by the former Woodforest CEO and Chairman who has a great passion for golf and deep pockets. Excellent green complexes and love to play. If I lived up that direction I would probably have a membership here simply because of the ownership.