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If you are looking to join a private golf club, Blackstone Country Club at Vistancia provides an exceptional course that can save you a lot of green.

 

While golfers have been apprehensive as of late to invest in their golfing habits, a new membership fee schedule at Blackstone Country Club is making it tempting to do so.

Blackstone Country Club is responding to the uncertain economic climate by offering affordable equity and non-equity golf memberships.

“The economy has affected the business of golf in many ways,” said Curt Smith, chief financial officer with Sunbelt Holdings, the developer of Blackstone, along with Shea Homes. ”Some private country clubs and golf courses are struggling and developers have had to make difficult decisions. In many cases, these clubs have gone back to lenders or been forced to open to public play to generate income.”

In order to keep Blackstone a cut above the rest, developers recently restructured the club’s golf memberships by decreasing the initiation fee for equity golf memberships to $15,000 and adding a new non-equity golf membership for $7,500. When compared to the initiation fees of other private country clubs in the Valley, the savings are truly tremendous.

The club says that it will also offer a limited number of equity social memberships, which allow members access to the clubhouse amenities, with the exception of golf, for $2,500 initiation fee. Property ownership with in the Blackstone is not required to take advantage of the club’s membership offereings.

A permanent advisory committee, comprised of six Blackstone members, met with the developer over a three-month period to listen to recommendations and to present suggestions that the developer incorporated into the new membership program. Ken Hoel, an advisory committee member and four-year Blackstone Country Club member, acknowledged that the committee had no issue with the developer’s plan in order to keep the club private and sustain the caliber of the amenities.

“These were necessary business decisions that all of our members seem to understand and agree with,” said Hoel. “The vote by the membership passed unanimously.”

Like the other Blackstone Country Club members, Hoel’s hope for the club is that nothing changes except the number of people who are able to experience it.

“The Jim Engh course, where lucky bounces outnumber the bad ones, is very fun to play—and the condition of the turf year-round is the best in Arizona,” he explained. “I’ve had more than one guest describe the food as the best in the state. Include on this list the comfortable yet elegant clubhouse, tennis courts, swimming pools and exercise rooms and you get the idea.”

To learn more about memberships at Blackstone, call 623.707.8700, ext. 100, or visit www.blackstonecountryclub.com.