Riverbend, Congressional, Westwood, and Chevy Chase CCs in Virginia and Maryland

[golfguy2021]

Four of my neighbors are members at Riverbend, Congressional, Westwood and Chevy Chase CCs in Virginia and Maryland. They let me play with them at those golf courses so that I can a feel for them because up until now, I've played mostly at public golf courses. The nicest local golf courses that I've been on are Trump national in Sterling and Raspberry falls in Leesburg.

I played at Riverbend yesterday and the place is beautiful and full of rich people, which is expected, I even saw some politicians there too. Everything is nice there and the staffs are excellent but I have to say this place just does not fit me. I completely failed out of place @Riverbend.

Today, I am playing at Congressional CC in Bethesda. I will report back when I have a chance.

Tomorrow, I will play at Chevy Chase. I will report back when I have a chance.

On Wednesday, I will play at Westwood. I will report back when I have a chance.

 

[Chef23]

I do agree that you need to feel comfortable where you play. Most clubs have a wide range of members. I have joined two different clubs at different stages in my life and didn’t have an issue finding people I fit well with. That said I agree you need to be comfortable going there.

 

[McLovin]

i've played congressional. i didn't find it to be too stuffy, so you may enjoy it more. either way, have a great time and soak up the surroundings! i don't think those kinds of opportunities come often.

 

[golfguy2021]

Updated:

- Played at Congressional CC in Bethesda on Monday. Too many rich people there just like Riverbend CC, and it is not my thing. The place is very nice.

- Played at Chevy Chase on Tuesday and it is very similar to Riverbend and Congressional. I guess if you have money or people of great influences, Chevy Chase is the place for you. I just don't feel like fitting in.

 

[golfinnut]

I've played Congressional & Riverbend. They are all going to be like that. Unless you carry yourself like you have money, then you will feel out of place. There is an attitude that surrounds places like that. And they know if you have "it" or not.

 

[golfguy2021]

Updated: I played at Westwood CC in Vienna and it has much less rich people there. The golf course is nice and service is good, but not as good like Riverbend, Congressional and Chevy Chase CCs. I feel like I can fit in here.

That being said, the cost to join Westwood CC is like 90K initiation fee, 10K/year in annual member fee and about 1k/year in food & drink. While I can afford it, I am not sure I want to spend that money to join Westwood.

 

[McLovin]

here's an observation. i don't live in an area with as much affluence as where you are, but in my job the majority of my clients hire me because they already have money and with that comes the kinds of complexities that i can help with. so i represent a fair number of people with money, many in the 8-figure range (nobody in 9-figures or more, though).

i find most of my wealthiest clients are pretty quiet about their money. sure they drive a nice car. sure they have a nice house. but we aren't talking mansions or ferraris. in fact, i'd say many MORE of my clients with less money drive just as nice if not nicer cars, and have just as nice if not nicer houses. but they ain't rich.

i also find it very funny to hear people talk about clients when they don't know i represent that person. like i may be talking to john and greg comes up. john will say "man, greg started a new business and he's CRUSHING it." i just nod and say something like "yeah i saw that too," when in reality i know greg's new business is treading water. my point is that nice cars and social media posts don't always translate to real wealth.

you do you. if you can afford a $90k entry fee, that's freaking awesome. don't worry about what anyone else makes, and do the thing that will make you happy!

 

[golfguy2021]

here's an observation. i don't live in an area with as much affluence as where you are, but in my job the majority of my clients hire me because they already have money and with that comes the kinds of complexities that i can help with. so i represent a fair number of people with money, many in the 8-figure range (nobody in 9-figures or more, though).

i find most of my wealthiest clients are pretty quiet about their money. sure they drive a nice car. sure they have a nice house. but we aren't talking mansions or ferraris. in fact, i'd say many MORE of my clients with less money drive just as nice if not nicer cars, and have just as nice if not nicer houses. but they ain't rich.

i also find it very funny to hear people talk about clients when they don't know i represent that person. like i may be talking to john and greg comes up. john will say "man, greg started a new business and he's CRUSHING it." i just nod and say something like "yeah i saw that too," when in reality i know greg's new business is treading water. my point is that nice cars and social media posts don't always translate to real wealth.

you do you. if you can afford a $90k entry fee, that's freaking awesome. don't worry about what anyone else makes, and do the thing that will make you happy!

I get what you're saying. My personal experience living in the McLean area, specific in my neighborhood, is that everyone has money. Probably 50% of people in the block has 9-figures. One person is the CEO of a big Pharma, quite a few of them are CFO or COO of big companies so they are loaded. I just happen to get lucky, bought my property right after the housing bubble and that's how I ended up in this neighborhood. My net worth is nothing compare to those guys.

I am still mulling over the 90k entry fee.

 

[McLovin]

I get what you're saying. My personal experience living in the McLean area, specific in my neighborhood, is that everyone has money. Probably 50% of people in the block has 9-figures. One person is the CEO of a big Pharma, quite a few of them are CFO or COO of big companies so they are loaded. I just happen to get lucky, bought my property right after the housing bubble and that's how I ended up in this neighborhood. My net worth is nothing compare to those guys.

I am still mulling over the 90k entry fee.

there's a very old, established country club within 5 minutes of my house. i could afford initiation and annual dues, but it would take some financial sacrifice. that said, i have zero desire to be a member there. i don't come from money, whereas most of the members do. so i don't really want to be made to feel like i'm on the outside looking in. i also don't want to catch my family up in the whole "keeping up with the joneses" mentality. i think i'm pretty immune from that now that i'm a little older, but wouldn't want my kids exposed to all that nonsense.

 

[golfguy2021]

there's a very old, established country club within 5 minutes of my house. i could afford initiation and annual dues, but it would take some financial sacrifice. that said, i have zero desire to be a member there. i don't come from money, whereas most of the members do. so i don't really want to be made to feel like i'm on the outside looking in. i also don't want to catch my family up in the whole "keeping up with the joneses" mentality. i think i'm pretty immune from that now that i'm a little older, but wouldn't want my kids exposed to all that nonsense.

In the meantime, I am sticking with public golf courses. The neighbors are very generous to let me play with them at CCs anytime I would like to and I will just not very often because I don't want to be seen as taking advantage of them.

 

[Daddio]

Glad you have a chance to play them all. I can't offer much on those specific golf courses because of the 4 I've only played Chevy Chase. Superbly conditioned and required every shot in my limited arsenal which both check very important personal boxes. As to your bigger concerns (and please don't take this the wrong way) honestly you'd have to move. You are in the absolute epicenter of pretentious, self important prima donnas. Optics matter way more there than anywhere else we've ever lived, especially for those 'posing' as more important and wealthy than they are. So of course you're going to run into a lot of what you're seeking to avoid at the country clubs around DC. I don't tend to pay much attention to pretentious class snobbery because much of it is posers anyway. So I wasn't keeping score of that crap at Chevy Chase but I'm not surprised it oozed of it there and I'm alsopretty certain there'd be less in other regions. When we lived in that area we met a lot of great down to earth people too so this isn't a beat down on the region. As for golf I always felt th e public courses were pretty good. If you have access, some of the military courses there were among the best anywhere.

 

[6iron]

I played Trump national back when it was Lowe's Island. It was built near where I grew up. The main thing I remember about it was the walk from green to tee was often as long or even longer than the walk from tee to green.