Playing private clubs without membership?

[scratchnurse]

Does anyone have any experience emailing private golf clubs trying to get on for a round? Some friends and I are taking our first golf trip end of September. There’s a pretty nice public course we’ll be playing and there’s a private club I want to try and get on. The private club is definitely known for reciprocals and last year even had advertisements for open tee times. Just curious if anyone had experience or maybe even a form letter I could borrow. 

[Middler]

7 hours ago, scratchnurse said:

Does anyone have any experience emailing private golf clubs trying to get on for a round? Some friends and I are taking our first golf trip end of September. There’s a pretty nice public course we’ll be playing and there’s a private club I want to try and get on. The private club is definitely known for reciprocals and last year even had advertisements for open tee times. Just curious if anyone had experience or maybe even a form letter I could borrow. 

The head pro or assistant pro at the semi private course I play regularly can often (not always) make a call and get us on local private courses, as long as we’re somewhat flexible on day and time. If you haven’t tried that it’s worth a shot. I think the private course just wants to know you’re not Happy Gilmore or some bozo, so the pro is vouching that you know how to behave on a golf course. A form letter doesn’t tell the receiving club anything about your “character.”

[GregGarner]

11 hours ago, scratchnurse said:

Does anyone have any experience emailing private golf clubs trying to get on for a round? Some friends and I are taking our first golf trip end of September. There’s a pretty nice public course we’ll be playing and there’s a private club I want to try and get on. The private club is definitely known for reciprocals and last year even had advertisements for open tee times. Just curious if anyone had experience or maybe even a form letter I could borrow. 

I, uh, am not exactly proud to admit this, but I've learned that if you suggest interest in joining, you're likely to get a free round at many courses... 

 

 

 

(In my defense, I actually was interested in joining the couple of times I've done this, but playing the course helped me realize that this was not going to be the venue for me. But I've been legitimately shocked at how easy it's been to play private facilities if you're willing to listen to their 90 min sales pitch about their pickleball tournaments and social gatherings.)

[cnosil]

25 minutes ago, GregGarner said:

I, uh, am not exactly proud to admit this, but I've learned that if you suggest interest in joining, you're likely to get a free round at many courses... 

 

 

 

(In my defense, I actually was interested in joining the couple of times I've done this, but playing the course helped me realize that this was not going to be the venue for me. But I've been legitimately shocked at how easy it's been to play private facilities if you're willing to listen to their 90 min sales pitch about their pickleball tournaments and social gatherings.)

Think we could have any success trying that at Augusta.

[MNUte]

9 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Think we could have any success trying that at Augusta.

Hmm, depends on how well you'd handle their background check, asset check, and every other check they'd be doing. 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

11 hours ago, GregGarner said:

I, uh, am not exactly proud to admit this, but I've learned that if you suggest interest in joining, you're likely to get a free round at many courses... 

It's golf, I've done the same thing countless times when I lived up north. I'd even offer to pay but usually it was complimentary. I actually did this once in Tennessee but wound up joining.

Another option is to ask if they allow outside tournaments at their club. I ran outings for my company and I would call and ask. If they said yes I would make an appointment to stop by and discuss. Then ask if there was a way to play the course to check it out. They usually said yes. I would check out three courses and then pick one for the outing. Once someone thinks they have around 32 golfers or more coming to play the doors magical open.