Wretched excess: What $750K can bring you
“What we’re creating here, we think, is a model for the 21stt-century golf club,” says Robert Rubin, creator of The Bridge club on Long Island, in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Let us hope not.
Membership in The Bridge costs $750,000 and $20,000 a year in dues. For that, you get spur-of-the-moment access to the Rees Jones-designed course since membership will cap out at just 150. (Hurry, there are 21 more spots left!)
Mr. Rubin founded the club in large measure to provide himself and his hedge fund and celebrity millionaire friends with an unpretentious environment in which to wear their golf caps backward, if they want. Sounds like some municipal courses we know where you could play every day for 100 years and not spend $750,000, or $20,000 a year.
50% off Mount Vintage memberships
The developers of Mount Vintage Plantation, the golf- and horse-oriented community in Aiken, SC, are running a 50 percent off membership sale for anyone who purchases one of their remaining lots. Full golf initiation is $25,000 currently.
Mount Vintage also provides an a la carte approach to membership fees. Whereas other communities typically offer use of all their facilities for a “full golf” membership fee, Mount Vintage gives its members choices after the payment of the initiation. For example, dues for a full-family golf membership are $205 per month; add the other activities, such as tennis and the fitness center, and the dues are $275. Dues for everything but golf are $100 monthly (after a $1,000 initiation fee).
Mount Vintage also offers what it calls a “permanent membership fee,” which gives members the right to transfer their membership in the club to the eventual purchasers of their homes. The one-time cost is $2,000, which strikes us as a fair insurance premium. If the potential purchaser is a golfer, built-in membership could mean the difference between sale or no sale.
For more information, contact Mount Vintage Sales Agent Geoff Wright at
