Exclusivity used to be a selling point for country club membership, but not so much anymore.
Country clubs across the nation have been struggling for members as younger families just seem to not be as interested in joining compared to previous generations. Frank Vain, the president of the St. Louis-based consulting firm McMahon Group, said country-club membership dropped 20% from 1990 to 2014, as did the number of clubs, according to a report from Business Insider.
“In the past, the country club was a very exclusive, private club,” Jay O’Hearn, Fernwood Country Club’s Director of Golf told the McComb Exchange Club on Thursday.
When membership started to decrease, the 98-year-old club started making some big changes, offering a range of memberships at different prices for different activities, hoping to feature a little something for everyone.
“We have different membership packages available,” O’Hearn said. “If you just want to eat and be social, we have memberships for that, and if you want all access we have memberships for that.”
Membership starts at $50 to $105 a month for the “Social & Athletic” plan, which at minimum gets people in the clubhouse to eat, drink and be merry, and includes other amenities, except golf. Full access membership ranges from $85 to $180 per month. A non-resident package, for people who live at least 50 miles from the club, is $50 to $100 per month, depending on what services are requested.
“The club is a little more open now. Our membership is more diverse now than what it was 20 years ago,” O’Hearn said.
In the past, he noted that members were restricted to specific days when they could use the club, and guests were only welcome as long as they were with the member who invited them.
“Country clubs as a whole, especially small town country clubs like ours, have been on the decline for probably a couple of decades now, and part of the reason for that is as things have gotten more expensive over the years, people’s incomes for things like that have gone down,” O’Hearn said. “There’s less expendable income for things like that.”
But Fernwood still has a lot to offer — golf, tennis, pickleball, swimming, a fitness center and dining, and club officials, who include a board of directors and stockholders, launched the new membership options to give more people a chance to take part in those offerings, O’Hearn said.
“That’s why we tried to get more aggressive with our membership package and make it more affordable than it was,” O’Hearn said.
And that came with changes to the club itself, he said.
Among them are the addition of pickleball, which is growing in popularity.
“It’s supposedly a larger version of ping pong, from what I understand, except it’s played on a half-sized tennis court,” O’Hearn said. “There’s not nearly as much running and stuff like that involved with pickle ball as there is with tennis.”
The restaurant, which is open Thursday through Saturday, is cooking up delicious dishes and features a new menu following the hiring of Chef Michael Guttuso last year.
“We were able to acquire him at the club to help us with our menu and fine dining. We were quite busy hosting Christmas events,” O’Hearn said.
There are two outdoor swimming pools — a full-size pool and one for kids.
“We are in the process now of doing some more renovating on the pool area,” O’Hearn said.
“And of course we have our golf course,” he added.
It’s the standard 18-holes, plus there’s a driving range and a putting facility.
“There was a thriving ladies golf program at one time and we’re trying to build that up,” O’Hearn said.
He has been at Fernwood for three years and has worked as a golf pro for 20.
He said the golf course saw a lot of activity at the onset of the pandemic.
“It was one of the few things that wasn’t shut down,” he said.
O’Hearn said people can find something that suits them at the country club.
“I think we have something for just about everybody and a membership rate now for just what you’re looking for,” he said. “We’re constantly looking to upgrade and improve the facilities in anyway we can.”
