Sterling, Mass., October 26 — Boston golfers who join the private-turned-public, soon-to-be-private-again Sterling National Country Club will have free access to four other nearby golf courses.
Carts only. Under a recently inked reciprocal agreement, primary golf members will pay only for carts if they wish to play Quidnesset CC (North Kingstown, R.I.), Norton (Mass.) CC, Hopkinton (Mass.) CC, and Shining Rock GC (Northbridge, Mass.). The Jan Companies, which purchased Sterling National for $4.2 million at a May foreclosure auction, owns Quidnesset and Norton.
Shining Rock, like Sterling National, The Georgetown (Mass.) Club, Pleasant Valley CC, and other New England golf courses, has had its share of financial woes. The semi-private Shining Rock has earned rave reviews since reopening in June, while new owners brought Georgetown back as Black Swan CC and Pleasant Valley heads to its own foreclosure auction next month.
No initiation fee. Sterling National, which is open to non-members for the rest of the 2010 season, will also waive the $7,000 initiation fee for golfers who join before 2011, says new general manager Jeffrey Carroll.
“Anyone who signs up before January 1 will be protected from initiation fees for the lifetime of their membership,” Carroll tells New England Golf Monthly.
The club appears to have changed direction on initiation payments. Earlier this year, Janice Cos. vice president Janice Mathews told NEGM that the Cranston, R.I.-based firm designed such rates to anchor members to the club “for life,”
NEGM suggested the initiation fee was too steep a price to pay in an economy that’s dooming country clubs and when neighboring courses like Wedgewood Pines CC (Stow, Mass.) waive such antes for at least two years.
Debt-free. Despite the continuing sour economy, Carroll believes Sterling National’s financially viable ownership and stellar conditions will ensure future success. Unlike individual owners like Pleasant Valley’s Edward Mingolla, Jan Cos. avoids aggressive loans that it can’t repay.
“We’re a completely debt-free company,” Carroll says, “even after the purchase of this club.”
That’s good news for Sterling National’s 200 or so members, many of whom have intimate experience with the financial woes that continue to affect the golf business, especially private clubs, across the country.
Private membership plummets. As the number of golfers nationally have dropped from 30 million in 2005 to 27.1 million, so have private club memberships, which plummeted to 2.1 million from 3 million in the early 1990s, according to the National Golf Foundation. Indeed, some 15 percent of the country’s 4,400 or so private clubs face severe financial issues, says the NGF.
The experience and stability of the 41-year-old Jan Cos., which also owns the daily-fee Grassy Hill CC (Orange, Conn.), should boost confidence in Sterling National’s future, according to Carroll. The new GM worked at Norton CC for two years before taking his current job.
The course’s location in central Massachusetts — less than an hour from Boston and some 15 minutes from Worcester — should also help the club reach its eventual goal of 300 golf and pool members, Carroll says.
Membership levels. Sterling National offers several membership categories that seen to be in line with other tracks’ charges. A primary golf membership costs $4,900, while rates for seniors and young adults are less.
Golf pro wanted. With the club reverting to private play at the beginning of next year, management is in the market for a head golf professional. Interested candidates should have 10 years experience as a head pro and five years as an assistant, says Carroll, who won’t divulge salary. Contact Carroll at 978-422-0275, or check out monster.com for additional details.
Want to know more about Sterling National CC? Read a review of the course and about how the Jan Cos. have helped the club turn around its formerly dire financial situation.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out at the Boston Golf Examiner and National Golf Examiner websites.)
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