How to Join a Private Golf Club (2026)

Joining a private golf club runs to five steps: confirm the category is open, secure a proposer, submit the application, pay the joining fee, then clear the waitlist. GreatClubReview checked all 182 clubs it has reviewed — 13 publish a waitlist, six charge a fee to join it, and the 29 US clubs classed private or invitation-only publish no joining fee at all. Compare them below.

• A$1,500Median published joining fee, across the 35 Australian clubs that publish one
• A$150–A$20,000Full published joining-fee range, Pine Rivers Golf Club to Indooroopilly Golf Club
• 0 of 29United States clubs classed private or invitation-only that publish an initiation fee
• 13Reviewed clubs publishing a waitlist — every one of them Australian

The table holds 61 clubs: the 11 classed invitation only, the 40 classed private, and ten more that publish a waitlist without being private — four public-access clubs and six member clubs. Sort it by any column heading. Sorting by Published joining fee puts the priced clubs first and sinks every “Not published — quotes on application” row to the bottom, which is the fastest way to see how few clubs price the step at all. Sorting by Access class groups the invitation-only clubs together. A cell reading “Not published — this club states no requirement” means the club published nothing on that point at review time, not that the requirement is absent. The five sections that follow set out joining a private club step by step, in the order a club applies them.

How Do You Join a Private Golf Club?

You join a private golf club in five steps: confirm the membership category is open, secure a member to propose you, submit the application, pay the joining fee, then clear the waitlist. Invitation-only clubs accept no applications at all — eleven of the 182 clubs reviewed are in that class.

A private golf club is a member-owned or member-governed course that sells membership rather than tee times. Ten of the 11 invitation-only clubs sit in the United States, among them Winged Foot Golf Club, Baltusrol Golf Club and Caves Valley Golf Club; the eleventh is Concord Golf Club in Sydney. An invitation-only club does not accept an application, so the sequence below starts one step later for the reader who is looking at one.

Every step below answers one part of how to join a private golf club, and each is drawn from what the clubs themselves publish. Of the 182 reviews, 158 record an access type — 84 public, 40 private, 11 invitation only, nine municipal, eight semi-private and six resort. The remaining 24 record none, so every access-class count on this page is a count of the clubs that record an access type, not of every club reviewed.

What It Costs to Join, Before You Start

Australian clubs publish a joining fee of A$150 to A$20,000, at a median of A$1,500 across 35 clubs. American private clubs publish nothing: none of the 29 US clubs classed private or invitation-only states an initiation fee, so step four cannot be priced before you apply.

One American club in 99 publishes any initiation figure. Abacoa Golf Club in Florida lists $20,000 for new members, and it is a public-access club. Every US club in the table above that a reader would recognise as private — Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Oakmont Country Club, The Riviera Country Club, Detroit Golf Club, Bayonne Golf Club — publishes the same thing on price, which is nothing. The disclosure rate among gated American clubs is 0 of 29.

The Australian side prices the step in the open. Thirty-five of the 83 Australian clubs reviewed publish a joining fee, across a published joining-fee range of A$150–A$20,000: A$150 at Pine Rivers Golf Club in Queensland, A$20,000 for the Country category at Indooroopilly Golf Club, a 133-fold spread inside one market. The median is A$1,500. Only three of the 22 Australian clubs classed private or invitation-only are in that group — Indooroopilly at A$20,000, Oatlands Golf Club at A$5,000 and The Eastern Golf Club at A$3,000 — so the disclosure comes overwhelmingly from public-access and member clubs. Thirty-two Australian clubs publish both a joining fee and an annual subscription, so their first-year cost is arithmetic rather than an estimate: the median first-year total across those 32 is A$3,383, the cheapest is A$1,163 at Pine Rivers, and the dearest is A$22,860 at Indooroopilly.

Check Whether the Membership Category Is Open

The first stage is the category check, and it decides whether the other four stages happen at all. Six reviewed clubs publish a closed or full state outright: The Coast Golf Club records all categories and waitlists closed, Long Reef Golf Club records its seven-day category full, Nudgee Golf Club records its seven-day category full with a waiting list, Beverley Park Golf Club records golf memberships closed, Virginia Golf Club records seven-day applications suspended, and Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort records full membership closed.

Clubs sell access as a ladder, and private club membership categories are priced and capped separately. Kwinana Golf Club publishes Seven Day at A$2,370, Six Day at A$2,236 and Five Day at A$2,009. Indooroopilly Golf Club runs Seven Day, Six Day, Country, Clubhouse, Junior and Corporate pathways. Cronulla Golf Club publishes Full Playing, Restricted Full Playing, Playing, Limited Playing, Junior and Clubhouse, and states that waitlists and closures apply across them.

Ask which categories are open before asking what they cost. The Coast Golf Club, reviewed 2 July 2026, publishes no subscription figure because it is not selling one. Long Reef Golf Club publishes a A$3,615 seven-day subscription for 2026/27 and a A$7,500 joining fee against a category that is full. Kwinana Golf Club, reviewed 11 October 2026, shows why the check is per category: its 7-day membership with Saturday access is full until further notice, while Six Day, Five Day and 9 Hole are still open.

Find a Member Who Will Propose You

Two of the 182 reviewed clubs publish a proposer requirement, and both are American. Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth records that sponsorship is required. Ansley Golf Club in Atlanta records membership by Board invitation and nomination by five sponsoring members.

A proposer is an existing member who puts an applicant’s name forward and vouches for it; a seconder supports the nomination. Ansley Golf Club sets the highest published bar in the corpus at five sponsoring members, which converts the stage from an introduction into a canvass. Colonial Country Club states the requirement without stating a number.

The corpus records almost nothing about getting a proposer for a private club, and that absence is itself the finding. No Australian club among the 83 reviewed publishes a proposer or sponsor requirement. Australian clubs publish waitlists instead, and the two mechanisms do the same job: they ration entry. The American clubs ration by who knows you, the Australian clubs by when you applied. Treat the requirement as present at any US private club, stated or not, and ask the club directly which member is expected to put the name forward.

Submit the Application and Its Supporting Papers

The third stage is the application, and the club sets its contents. Royal Perth Golf Club records that external applications rest on a committee process and that applications from outside the club were restricted from December 2025.

Assemble the papers in this order, which is the order the clubs above ask for them:

1. Confirm the category you are applying for, by name, as the club publishes it.
2. Name your proposer and any seconder the club requires.
3. Supply identification and a residential address, which sets Country or metropolitan category eligibility.
4. State your current handicap and home club, where you hold one.
5. Pay any application or waitlist fee the club charges to lodge the form.
6. Ask, in writing, for the total payable in year one, itemised.

That last item is the one the private club application process leaves unanswered on the fee schedule. The published joining fee is not the whole first-year figure at three of the clubs above: Massey Park Golf Club adds a A$200 bar levy to its A$1,000 joining fee, Pennant Hills Golf Club builds A$500 of trading credit into its A$7,000 subscription, and Kareela Golf Club quotes A$987 for its seven-day category “plus admin”.

Pay the Joining Fee and Any Waitlist Deposit

Six clubs charge a separate fee to sit on the waitlist: A$100 at Massey Park, A$200 at Long Reef, A$750 at Redland Bay, A$1,000 at Indooroopilly, 10% of the nomination fee at Royal Perth, and 10% of the entrance fee, with a A$500 minimum, at Royal Fremantle. Indooroopilly and Royal Fremantle credit theirs against the entrance fee.

The fourth stage is the joining fee, paid on acceptance, and the waitlist fee is paid before it. The published fees show what a club waitlist involves in cash terms rather than in queue length. Massey Park Golf Club states its A$100 waitlist fee is non-refundable. Long Reef Golf Club charges A$200 against a A$7,500 adult joining fee. Redland Bay Golf Club charges A$750 across its 7 Day, 6 Day and 5 Day categories. Royal Perth Golf Club takes 10% of the applicable nomination fee from waitlist applicants and the balance when a place is offered.

Two clubs publish a credit. Indooroopilly Golf Club’s A$1,000 adult waitlist engagement fee is credited against the entrance fee when membership is offered, and Royal Fremantle Golf Club credits its holding fee toward the entrance fee on admission, which makes both deposits rather than charges. The other four are payments for a position in a queue. Ask which of the two a club is charging before you pay it.

Clear the Waitlist and the Committee Decision

Thirteen of the 182 reviewed clubs publish a waitlist, and every one of the 13 is Australian. No United States club in the corpus publishes one. The 13 are Moore Park, Massey Park, Cronulla, Royal Perth, Royal Fremantle, Indooroopilly, Redland Bay, Rich River, Mollymook, The Coast, Long Reef, Nudgee and Wollongong.

The fifth stage is the wait, then the committee decision. Rich River Golf Club publishes waiting lists on its Gold and Full categories alongside a A$500 joining fee for new Gold or Full members admitted from 1 October 2025. Mollymook Golf Club publishes an adult golf membership waitlist with junior and under-21 exceptions, which is a club rationing adult places while keeping the pathway categories open. Moore Park Golf publishes applications as waitlisted during a course transition.

None of the 13 publishes how long the wait runs. The only reviewed club that puts its own number on it is North Ryde Golf Club, which estimates approximately 12 to 18 months for Full Playing. What the 13 publish is a status, and the status is dated. Indooroopilly Golf Club, reviewed 13 July 2026, publishes a waitlist engagement fee but no queue length. Ask the club for its current position count and the date it was taken, and treat any number you are quoted elsewhere as unsourced.

How Long Joining a Private Golf Club Takes

Joining takes as long as the waitlist, and the waitlist length is the one figure clubs rarely publish. Six reviewed clubs publish a closed state instead: The Coast lists all categories and waitlists closed, Long Reef and Nudgee list their seven-day category full, Beverley Park lists golf memberships closed, Virginia has suspended seven-day applications, and Yarrawonga Mulwala lists full membership closed.

The published statuses, in the order a club moves through them, and each as recorded at its review date:

• Open — Surfers Paradise Golf Club, reviewed 11 October 2026: 7 Day category open now, with the club noting it may close without notice.
• Open with a waitlist — Rich River Golf Club, reviewed 9 July 2026: waiting lists on Gold and Full, other categories admitting.
• Full with a waitlist — Nudgee Golf Club, reviewed 1 July 2026: seven-day category full with a waiting list.
• Full — Long Reef Golf Club, reviewed 2 July 2026: seven-day category full.
• Closed — The Coast Golf Club, reviewed 2 July 2026: all categories and waitlists closed, applications closed.
• Restricted — Royal Perth Golf Club: external applications restricted from December 2025.

Six statuses, six named clubs, and no durations. A club that publishes “full” in July has told you the answer for July. Re-check it before you assemble the papers, because the status is the variable and the fee schedule is not.

What Private Clubs Ask For

Private clubs ask for four things in every published requirement in this corpus: an open category, a named proposer where the club requires one, a completed application, and money. Sixty-one of the 182 reviewed clubs are gated on at least one of the four.

Run this checklist against the club before you apply. Each item is answerable from the table above:

• Confirm the access class — invitation only means no application is accepted.
• Confirm the category you want is open, by name and by date.
• Confirm whether a proposer is required, and how many sponsors.
• Confirm whether a waitlist exists and whether it is priced.
• Confirm the joining fee, or confirm that the club will not publish one.
• Confirm the first annual subscription and the category it belongs to.
• Confirm the levies, trading credits and administration charges outside the headline figure.

Two of those seven cannot be answered in advance at an American private club. Neither the joining fee nor the total first-year cost is published by any of the 29 US clubs classed private or invitation-only, so an applicant there commits to the process before learning the price.

Why American and Australian Clubs Ask for Different Things

American clubs ration entry by who proposes you; Australian clubs ration it by when you applied. Waitlists appear at 13 Australian clubs and no American ones. Invitation-only status appears at 10 American clubs and one Australian one. A published proposer requirement appears at two American clubs and no Australian ones.

The vocabulary splits the same way, and it splits inside Australia too. Seven Australian clubs call the payment a nomination fee, and the term is Queensland, Western Australian and Victorian: four Queensland clubs use it — Pine Rivers, Caloundra, Pacific and Maroochy River — alongside Royal Perth and Rockingham in Western Australia and Curlewis in Victoria. No New South Wales club uses it. New South Wales clubs say joining fee, four say entrance fee — Cronulla Golf Club, Mollymook Golf Club, Mona Vale Golf Club and Rich River Golf Club — and Pennant Hills Golf Club says Heritage Fee. American clubs say initiation fee. One search term therefore misses most of the market, which is why the table above is built on the mechanism rather than the word. The state-level detail behind those rows sits in the NSW golf club reviews.

The sequence is the same in both markets. What changes is the number at step four, and whether the club will tell you what it is.

Private, Semi-Private and Resort Golf Clubs Compared

The access class decides how many of the five steps apply: an invitation-only club accepts no application, a private club runs all five, and a semi-private, resort or municipal course sells golf first and membership second. The table sets out what each class asks for, and what you can do before you apply.

A semi-private club is the easiest gated club to inspect. BlackHorse Golf Club in Cypress, Texas puts a public North Course in front of a members-only South Course. Lochmere Golf Club in Cary and Warrior Golf Club near Charlotte sell daily public tee times beside memberships priced on inquiry, and Oak Brook Golf Club in Illinois adds resident, corporate and range memberships to public play. None of the four publishes a dues figure, so the round is the research.

A resort course treats membership as a side product. Aviara Golf Club runs its Club at Aviara and A-Club programs without published pricing. Arroyo Golf Club in Las Vegas lists 2026 annual programs, including Arroyo-only and Siena-and-Arroyo combinations. Ko Olina Golf Club in Hawaii advertises no traditional membership at all, only Kamaaina resident rates, and Tiburon Golf Club in Naples admits mainly through membership, invited play or The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburon. In Australia, Howlong Golf Resort sells a Resort category at A$129 with no joining fee.

A municipal course sells a pass, not a seat. Eight of the nine municipal courses counted here charge no initiation fee, and three publish an annual figure: Wilmette Golf Club up to $2,700 depending on tier, age and residency, Hillandale Golf Course $1,395, and Water’s Edge Golf Club $1,250. The full breakdown sits in the guide to golf club membership cost in the United States.

When the Membership You Want Is Closed

A closed category is not always a closed club: the reviews record four ways round a full list — another category, a younger category, a dated intake, or a published wait. The statuses below are as each review recorded them when last checked, between July and October 2026, and they move faster than fees do.

• Another category is open. Wollongong Golf Club lists its Full 7-Day and Eagle categories at capacity while its 6-Day category, from A$1,700 a year, stays open. Kwinana Golf Club lists its 7-day membership with Saturday access full until further notice while Six Day, Five Day and 9 Hole stay open. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort lists full membership closed but still publishes a A$1,100 joining fee for its six-day and country categories.
• A younger category skips the queue. Mollymook Golf Club has run an adult waitlist since November 2021, but juniors and under-21 students bypass it, and its Under-21 Student category costs A$380 with no entrance fee. Its Full Young Adult (22 to 29) and Full Intermediate (30 to 39) categories wait with everyone else.
• The club names an intake date. Pymble Golf Club, full at its September 2026 review, was taking applications for intakes in September 2026 and March 2027. Jacaranda Golf Club in Florida sells an Access Card for public play until full membership reopens on 1 November 2026.
• The club publishes the wait. North Ryde Golf Club is the rare club that puts a number on it: approximately 12 to 18 months for Full Playing, as recorded at its July 2026 review.

Some closures publish no way round at all. Beverley Park Golf Club lists golf memberships closed. Virginia Golf Club in Brisbane has suspended new seven-day memberships indefinitely. Emerald Lakes Golf Club on the Gold Coast lists membership capped and says applications are reviewed case by case. Royal Fremantle Golf Club is not closed but offers no way round either: every playing category, junior categories included, sits behind its waitlist. The Coast Golf Club goes furthest, with all categories and waitlists closed.

Ask for the status of every category, not the club. A full seven-day list says nothing about the six-day list beside it, and at Wollongong and Kwinana that is exactly where the open door was.

How Much a Midweek Membership Saves

Across the 11 reviewed Australian clubs whose fee summaries list a seven-day rate beside a reduced-day one, a six-day membership costs a median 13% less than seven-day (nine clubs) and a five-day or midweek membership a median 23% less (six clubs). The saving is on the annual subscription; at most of these clubs the joining fee does not move.

Six-day usually means giving up Saturday: Randwick, Massey Park, Box Hill and Wollongong all define it as Sunday to Friday. The six-day discount runs from 6% at Kwinana to 26% at Massey Park. Dropping to five days or midweek saves more, from 13% at Surfers Paradise to 39% at Massey Park.

The joining fee rarely follows the subscription down. Long Reef Golf Club charges A$7,500 to join its seven-day, six-day or five-day category alike. Warringah charges A$2,000 across seven-day, six-day, five-day and weekend; The Eastern charges A$3,000 on its Full Seven-Day, Intermediate Six-Day and Weekday Five-Day; Mona Vale set A$5,000 for both 7 Day and 6 Day from 1 August 2026; and Massey Park adds the same A$1,000 joining fee and A$200 bar levy to all three of its day categories. Nelson Bay Golf Club is the clearest exception: men pay A$1,000 to enter its full Playing category and A$500 for Limited Day, Flexi or Country.

That changes what the first year saves. At Long Reef, a five-day member pays A$10,180 in year one against A$11,115 for seven-day — an 8% saving before levies, where the subscription alone saves 26%. The full discount arrives from the second year, once the joining fee is behind you.

Intermediate and Young Adult Memberships Explained

An intermediate or young-adult membership is a full playing category priced by age, and the biggest saving is usually on the joining fee, not the subscription. At least 37 of the 83 Australian clubs reviewed list an intermediate, young-adult, colt or age-based category; in the United States the equivalent appears as a discount on a public pass, such as the $1,195 young-adult annual pass at Hillandale Golf Course against $1,395 for a single adult.

The bands are not standard, so check the age limit before assuming you qualify. Marrickville Golf Club splits intermediates at 18–24 and 25–29, Queanbeyan Golf Club sets Young Adult at 18–24, Penrith Golf Club runs Intermediate at 19–25, Balgowlah Golf Club stops at 35, and Killara Golf Club runs an Under 40 category with fees staggered from age 12 to 39.

The subscription discount shrinks as the band ages. Bayview Golf Club charges A$1,400 at 18–21 against A$4,295 for Platinum 7 Day, a third of the full rate, but A$4,170 at 33–35. Marrickville charges A$550 at 18–24, half its A$1,100 full rate. Penrith charges A$930 at 19–25 against A$1,425, and Warringah charges A$1,890 for Under-35 seven-day against A$2,355. Put the two discounts together and the gap is wide: at The Eastern Golf Club, a member aged 21 to 24 pays A$2,016 in year one including levies, against A$7,056 for a full member, on GCR arithmetic in the review rather than a club quote.

Every band ends. Ask the club what moving up to the next category costs, and whether any joining-fee difference falls due when you do.

Joining a Golf Club Without a Joining Fee

Fifteen Australian clubs publish an adult golf subscription and list no joining fee beside it, and two of them say so in as many words. Penrith Golf Club records its joining fee as nil for every category in 2026, and Kareela Golf Club promotes no joining fee and immediate approval, with a separate admin fee whose amount it does not display.

Five of them undercut the cheapest first year on this page. The A$1,163 floor at Pine Rivers counts only clubs that publish both a joining fee and a subscription. Charlestown at A$970, Kareela at A$987 plus admin, Marrickville at A$1,100 and Gosford at A$1,095 publish a full adult subscription with no joining fee listed to add to it, and Bondi publishes A$699 for a nine-hole short course.

Two of the fifteen, Bayview Golf Club and Kingston Beach Golf Club, are classed private, and Rockingham Golf Club, also private, advertises no nomination fee while quoting subscriptions only through its online application. All three stand apart from the 29 American private and invitation-only clubs counted above, none of which publishes an initiation fee.

Other clubs waive the fee for some applicants rather than all. Gordon Golf Club currently waives its A$750 joining fee for juniors and women. Nelson Bay Golf Club currently exempts women from its entrance fee. Pennant Hills Golf Club offers women 50% off its Heritage Fee under current conditions, and Oatlands Golf Club halves its joining fee for eligible immediate family of existing playing members.

Treat “none listed” as a published position, not a guarantee. Thirteen of the fifteen say only that no fee appears on the schedule. Ask the office to confirm it in writing, with any admin charge, levy or affiliation fee, before you budget the first year as subscription only.

Starting With a Social or Clubhouse Membership

A social membership costs between A$5 and A$50 at 19 of the 22 Australian clubs below, often for several years at once, and where a club describes it, it buys the clubhouse, not the course. Randwick Golf Club and Wollongong Golf Club both list theirs as non-playing, and Beverley Park Golf Club describes social membership as a clubhouse product rather than a golf-playing membership.

Do not confuse social membership with social golf. Gosford Golf Club sells Social Golf at A$570 as a playing tier for less frequent golfers, separate from its Social Club membership. Narooma Golf Club prices social golfing at A$1,045 against A$10 for social membership. Nelson Bay Golf Club sells Social Playing at A$665, two social nine-hole rounds a week with no club handicap, beside its A$15 non-playing subscription. The word social covers two different products, at two very different prices.

American clubs use the word differently again. White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville sells Social Sport memberships beside Golf, Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne lists social among its private categories, and Bridlewood Golf Club near Dallas sells Social tiers at $59 to $99 a month, priced as an amenities product rather than a step towards golf.

What a social membership does for an applicant is put you inside the clubhouse for a few dollars a year at most of these clubs. None of the reviews quoted here says it moves you up a golf waitlist. North Ryde Golf Club comes closest, with a A$50 social waiting category for applicants. Ask the club whether social membership counts towards anything before you assume it does.

What Membership Costs Once You Are In

The joining fee is a one-off; the annual subscription recurs. Thirty-two Australian clubs publish both, and the median first-year total across them is A$3,383 — a A$1,500 median joining fee sitting on top of the first year’s subscription.

Pine Rivers Golf Club sets the floor at A$1,163: a A$150 nomination fee plus a A$1,013 seven-day subscription. Indooroopilly Golf Club sets the ceiling at A$22,860, from a A$20,000 Country entrance fee and a A$2,860 Country subscription. The full distribution across all 83 Australian clubs, state by state, sits on the guide to joining fee vs annual subscription: what you actually pay.

Whether the recurring half is worth paying depends on rounds played, not on the joining fee, and that arithmetic belongs on the analysis of cost per round. This page answers the prior question: what the clubs require, in what order, and which of them will tell you the price before you apply.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you join a private golf club?

You join in five steps: confirm the membership category is open, secure a member to propose you where the club requires one, submit the application, pay the joining fee, then clear the waitlist and the committee decision. Eleven of the 182 clubs reviewed are invitation only and accept no application at any stage.

How much does it cost to join a private golf club?

Australian clubs publish joining fees from A$150 to A$20,000, at a median of A$1,500 across 35 clubs. United States private clubs publish nothing: none of the 29 US clubs classed private or invitation-only states an initiation fee. One US club in 99 publishes any figure — Abacoa Golf Club, at $20,000.

Do you need a sponsor to join a private golf club?

Two of the 182 reviewed clubs publish a sponsor requirement, and both are American. Ansley Golf Club requires nomination by five sponsoring members alongside Board invitation. Colonial Country Club states sponsorship is required without naming a number. No Australian club among the 83 reviewed publishes a proposer requirement.

What is a nomination fee at a golf club?

A nomination fee is the Australian name for a one-off joining or entrance fee. Seven clubs use the term: four in Queensland, two in Western Australia, one in Victoria. No New South Wales club uses it. There the payment is a joining fee, an entrance fee at Cronulla, Mollymook, Mona Vale and Rich River, or a Heritage Fee at Pennant Hills.

How long does it take to join a private golf club?

Clubs publish a status, not a duration. Thirteen reviewed clubs publish a waitlist and none states its length. The Coast Golf Club published all categories and waitlists closed at its July 2026 review, Long Reef and Nudgee published their seven-day category full, and Royal Perth restricted external applications from December 2025.

Can anyone join a private golf club?

No. Eleven of the 182 clubs reviewed are classed invitation only and accept no applications, ten of them in the United States. A further 40 are classed private and admit through an application the club controls. Of the clubs that record an access type, 84 are public and take green-fee play without membership.

Can you join a golf club without paying a joining fee?

Yes, at some Australian clubs. Fifteen clubs reviewed publish an adult subscription with no joining fee listed beside it, including Penrith Golf Club, which records the fee as nil for 2026, and Kareela Golf Club, which charges an admin fee instead. Gordon Golf Club waives its A$750 fee for juniors and women, and Long Reef, The Eastern and Massey Park charge nothing to join at 18 to 21.

Is golf club membership cheaper for younger adults?

Usually, and the saving is largest on the joining fee. Long Reef Golf Club charges A$7,500 to join at the full adult rate but nothing at 18 to 21, and The Eastern Golf Club charges A$3,000 but nothing at 18 to 24. Age bands vary by club, and Warringah Golf Club charges its Under-35 members the full A$2,000.

What is the difference between a private and a semi-private golf club?

A private club admits members through an application it controls, and only 3 of the 40 private clubs reviewed publish a joining fee. A semi-private club sells memberships beside public tee times, so you can play the course before you apply: BlackHorse, Lochmere, Oak Brook and Warrior all take public bookings.