Nice Set of Clubs

There are lots of reasons to join a private golf club.

Better manicured courses. No hoi polloi hackers in Hawaiian shirts. The staff in the pro shop, caddie shack and locker room know your name and at least pretend to like you. There are free cashews in the grill room. The list goes on.

But there are just as many reasons not to join a private golf club. It rarely makes any economic sense on a cost-per-round basis. You may well love the layout but loathe the old-goat members who have ruled the roost since the Great Depression.

And, well, it's like a marriage: One course, basically, till death do you part -- until another, sexier club catches your eye.

This is assuming the private club anoints you in the first place, and we all know Groucho Marx's thoughts on that: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member."

Gaining entree through the gates can be as cruel a game as golf itself; we're reminded of Heidi Klum's terse signature line to contestants on her fashion world reality show, "Project Runway": "You're in, or you're out."

Tour GCX Partners offers a third way. Its members qualify via an application process mimicking (albeit it with less attitude) that of private golf clubs -- ascertaining financial means, collecting character references and checking for an understanding of the game's etiquette and sufficient playing ability.

Those who make the grade pay $6,250 annually for 10 unescorted foursomes (or three- or twosomes, if you somehow lack playing partners) on any of the 24 private clubs currently in the company's network -- most within reach of New York City, but also a handful in Las Vegas and one in Florida.

Tour GCX won't permit the public release of member clubs' names except to individual applicants, but two have hosted major championships in their history (sorry, it's not Winged Foot or Baltusrol), and there's not a dog in the bunch.

The benefit to the private clubs is twofold: They're getting an added revenue stream and meeting viable prospective members, at a time when many such facilities are struggling to fill their rosters.