Five-star golf: The rich pay to play

Southwest Florida may be home to perhaps more high-priced golf courses than anywhere in the country

By SETH SOFFIAN, ssoffian@news-press.com

When Henry Thiele arrives for his tee time, his clubs are already waiting in his cart, irons facing out, the wet towel he uses to wipe the clubs down folded neatly behind the seat, and he is greeted by name — always.

MORE FOR YOUR FORE: Claudia Fabela tees off on the third hole on one of the courses at Quail West Golf and Country Club. She was visiting her parents from Naperville, Ill. They own the home in the background. A membership at the club is $175,000 for residents. ANDREW WEST/news-press.com

Welcome to Shangri-La — admission price: $100,000 and up.

The luxuries found at the most expensive golf courses in Southwest Florida, itself among the most upscale regions in the nation, go well beyond this.

Five-star service, ample amenities, opulent clubhouses, greens immaculate enough to eat off, and, most importantly, unfettered access to golf, make Southwest Florida a mecca for some of the most expensive courses in the nation and home to perhaps more high-priced courses than anywhere in the country.

Lee and Collier counties are home to at least 16 courses, most from Bonita Beach Road south, commanding initial membership fees of at least $100,000.

Three courses charge more than $200,000 to join, led by Olde Collier’s widely reported asking price of $260,000.

South Florida — which includes Donald Trump’s $350,000 Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach and Jack Nicklaus’ similarly priced The Bear’s Club in Jupiter — California, Arizona and select other spots in the country have their share of wealthy courses as well.

But prevailing opinion, locally and elsewhere, says Southwest Florida tops the chart for chart-topping golf.

“There’s small pockets of places like Naples around the world, but there aren’t many of them,” said Ed Rodgers, vice president of The Bonita Bay Group, which has three courses in the six-figure range in Southwest Florida, including Mediterra, the North Naples club where Thiele played Tuesday.

BOTTOMS UP: Cognac priced at $195 per shot is enjoyed by, from left, Lenny Tremaglio, 66, Bill Bridgett, 59, and Frank Maresca, 60, inside the 25,000-square-foot clubhouse after a round of golf at Mediterra in North Naples. CLINT KRAUSE/news-press.com

“Naples just has got a very high per capita wealth factor,” Rodgers said. “It’s very much an isolated market condition. It’s the same appeal that Palm Springs has. Naples would probably be the Palm Springs of the East Coast.”

Ultimately, it’s still just golf: 14 clubs, one ball, 18 holes and 7,000 some-odd yards.

But golf at high-end courses hardly resembles the game played at daily-fee courses around the country.

At Mediterra, Thiele is not just greeted by name. He’s also asked whether there’s anything special he needs for his round.

In the golf shop, a sign gives him the day’s course conditions. Greens, for instance, are rolling at a 10 on the Stimpmeter, a device used to measure their speed.

Fresh coffee is warming in sterling carafes outside the locker room.

The driving range is too far from the clubhouse to walk, so a staff member will shuttle him to the range if his playing partner has arrived first and driven over in his or her cart.

Thiele does not carry a bucket of balls to the driving range. They’re already stacked neatly in pyramids when he arrives. An attendant makes periodic visits to see they stay that way.

“They know every member and his spouse by name,” said Thiele, 58, among the first to join Mediterra, which opened the first of its two courses in December 2000. “In fact, all the guys who work at the bag room do, too.

A numbers game

The sticker price is enough to send the average golfer into shock, but the cost to play Southwest Florida’s most expensive courses doesn’t stop with their six-figure initiation fees. There are annual dues, tips, caddie fees and even cart fees. Below are some of the other sundry costs that make a membership fee of $100,000 or more just the beginning. Annual dues Dues are directly proportional to membership fee. That means anywhere from $10,300 a year at a top-end course like Naples National, where the membership fee is $225,000, to under $3,000 at the most affordable private clubs. Tips Before a round, staff members at private clubs greet members and make sure any special needs are met before they begin their rounds. At the end of the round, they check on members’ rounds, clean their clubs with a wet towel and store their clubs for their next use. For this, a normal tip is $2, a “good tip” is $5 and a “great tip” is $10, says Ben Thurston, 24, an assistant professional at Mediterra in North Naples. If the average high-end private club has 150 members, that might mean 100 rounds of golf in a normal winter day. If the average tip is $5, the entire outside cart staff will split that day’s tips, which could amount to $500 total, or an extra $50 a day for a 10-person staff. Caddie fees They don’t work for free. Caddies and forecaddies — a single caddie for a foursome who works downrange of golfers spotting golf balls and performing other duties of a caddie — are available at several clubs, but members have to pay for the service. The minimum fee for a forecaddie, who usually works in tandem with a second forecaddie, is about $25-$30 at most clubs. Each member of the foursome pays the forecaddie, meaning a $100-$120 payday for each round a forecaddie works. The minimum fee for a regular caddie is about $50-$60. Some caddies will carry two bags at once, also adding to a $100-$120 payday for a round. Golfers have been known to pay a caddie as much as $300, however, if the golfer has a particularly good round or the caddie provides a helpful tip — always upon request. Cart fees At Mediterra, which has an initiation fee of $175,000, there is $35 charge for each twosome to rent a cart. At Quail West, which has a $175,000 membership fee for residents and $200,000 fee for nonresidents, the cart fee is $19.90 per person. Bob Byrnes, director of golf at Mediterra, explains that cart fees are applied to generate revenue for the club. These are different from annual dues. “Dues help sustain the operation of the club,” Byrnes said. Cart fees also provide the only pay-as-you-go cost for those playing golf more often than other members. — Seth Soffian RELATED ITEM • High-end golf market not on par with today’s poor economy

“It’s really a wonderful feeling.”

John Carroll, golf director at The Club at Pelican Bay on U.S. 41 in Naples, which has a five-year waiting list of would-be members wanting to pay the $150,000 initiation fee, says there’s no such thing as too much service.

“Are our members catered to? Yes,” Carroll said. “The more you put down, the more you expect. I hate to be that blunt, but that’s the way it is.”

Play any time

As important as service is, nothing beats access.

There are about 160 golf courses in Lee and Collier counties, yet getting on them in the winter, when the area’s population balloons, can be difficult even for members of some upscale private clubs.

Thiele and his wife, Virginia, moved to Mediterra from Bonita Bay, itself a six-figure course, several years ago when Bonita Bay’s 1,500 members made its five courses too busy.

“Some courses, there’s just too much pressure on the golf course,” Thiele said. “You can’t adjust to it.”

Limited member rolls, usually 275 or 300, combat overcrowding. Many high-end courses have well-spaced tee times for their members, as much as 14 minutes apart, although many say they don’t need tee times at all.

Others take access a step further.

They don’t have tee times. Members just show up.

Naples National Golf Club, Olde Florida Golf Club and the Golf Club of the Everglades, all in Naples, are among the area’s stand-alone courses that often serve as second, or third, clubs for members.

With about 160 current members, Golf Club of the Everglades never sees more than 90-100 golfers in a day, said director of golf Dan Mullaly. That makes for near-immediate service when members arrive.

“The ability for members to drive to the club, get out, have their clubs loaded on the cart and just go play, in Naples, Florida, in February or March is priceless,” Mullaly said.

Golf Club of the Everglades is among a handful of clubs that offer another premiere service: caddies and forecaddies. The latter, usually one or two caddies for a foursome, help spot balls ahead of golfers, rake bunkers, fill divots, help read greens and more.

“He just kind of helps them around the golf course,” Mullaly said.

Do the math

The numbers sound exorbitant. For the most part, however, those in the golf industry say Southwest Florida’s lofty initiation fees can be backed up.

A high-end golf course built in Collier County today can cost as much as $30 million, according to developers. With most clubs capping membership at 300, a club would have to charge $100,000 per member just to break even.

Reduce the limit to 275 members, as many have, and the price goes up.

“And the people that are doing it are probably going to want to turn a little bit of profit,” said Tom Wildenhaus, head professional at Olde Florida, which has about 250 members — 25 under its cap — and a membership price of $175,000.

“Our founding members no longer derive a profit from this place,” Wildenhaus said of the 10-year-old course. “Now it’s just a matter of paying off any debt that you might have or funding any capital improvement needs you might have.”

Other factors can affect a course’s asking price, not the least of which is prestige.

Define exclusivity

Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit is among the most revered, tradition-rich golf courses in the nation. It has hosted the U.S. Open six times, the PGA Championship twice and the U.S. Amateur once, and in two years it will host the most raucous affair in golf, the Ryder Cup.

Ben Hogan and Gary Player are among the greats who have won on its grounds.

Yet, the esteemed course wouldn’t rank in the top 15 when it comes to admission price in Southwest Florida, where courses asking $100,000 usually haven’t played host to much more than a few member-guest events.

Oakland Hills just raised its initiation fee to $100,000. And Oakland Hills may be the most expensive of this country’s legendary golf venues, a list that includes names like Oakmont, Winged Foot, Merion, Congressional, Olympic, Pine Valley, Merion and Augusta National.

There are two reasons: Those courses were all built and paid for decades ago, when land prices and construction costs were fractions of what they are today, and no one gets into those clubs.

“At Winged Foot, you can’t just walk in there and write a check and say, ‘I’d like to join,’ ” said Naples’ Tom Brown, a member at Naples National Golf Club, which has an asking price of $225,000. “They have to invite you in, and you have to be vetted.”

Stephen Lockwood — who owns or is a member of six golf courses worldwide, including two in Southwest Florida with six-figure admission fees — is among many who say that softness in the high-end golf course market is making it harder for Southwest Florida courses to stick to an invitation-only policy.

Nevertheless, most courses keep their members’ names secret. Others won’t reveal their membership fee.

Three developers, including publicly traded Bonita Springs-based WCI Communities, declined interview requests for this story.

“I think they just want to create an atmosphere of exclusivity,” Lockwood said, part owner of Golf Club of the Everglades and a member at Olde Florida. “I think it’s very tough to make yourself exclusive.”