Firethorne Country Club's failure to make payments on millions in loans turned into a public battle with its lender last week, and the legal dispute is set to spill into court Monday.

The posh suburban club's financial troubles are the first local example of a nationwide trend of struggling golf clubs - one industry experts say will probably worsen as the downturn persists.

As membership lags and financing remains tight, some say a growing number of private clubs will fall into bankruptcy or face foreclosure.

"Ten years ago, we never saw a golf club just flat-out close," said Jack Nance, executive director of the Carolinas Golf Association, a trade group based near Pinehurst. "... The economy has now put them under. It's a whole different world now."

The troubles seem a far cry from years past, when high-end country clubs sprang up around the Charlotte region, often at the center of exclusive golf communities, and membership swelled to capacity. But as the real estate bubble deflated and the finance crisis pummeled the region, membership at many clubs began to fall.

Compounding the problem, many newer courses are saddled with debt they're struggling to repay, experts say.

As the market resets, more clubs will file for bankruptcy, be sold in foreclosure auctions or close altogether, those in the golf industry say. They say that many of the survivors will shed their veils of exclusivity for a more welcoming, family-friendly image, quickening the transition already occurring behind the gates of some of the country's most elite clubs.

Most of the 4,400 private golf clubs in the U.S. have seen a drop in membership and rounds played, according to a recent report from the National Golf Foundation in Jupiter, Fla., which provides research and consulting services to golf businesses.

Memberships are down an average 13 percent, and up to 15 percent of clubs nationwide are "seriously challenged," the report found.

The number of golfers in the Carolinas dropped by more than 5,000 between 2008 and 2009, according to the Carolinas Golf Association.

And National Golf Foundation statistics show rounds played in North Carolina in December were down almost 40 percent from the year before, compared to a drop of about 15 percent for the U.S.

Now, private clubs are trying to make up the difference with special membership offers and new programs for golfers' families. Some have even opened their courses to the public to drum up capital.

Strapped and struggling

For a while, it seemed as if the Charlotte region could sustain the rush of new golf communities.

The sport first came to Charlotte in 1911, when Charlotte Country Club completed its course. Myers Park Country Club followed a decade later. But through the Depression and the war that followed, private-club development lulled in Charlotte and nationwide. The Carolina Golf Course established a private club in 1958, and the prestigious Quail Hollow Club was formed the next year.

The Charlotte region saw its biggest golf growth spurt in the 1990s. Most of those courses cropped up in high-end housing developments, such as Ballantyne Country Club and The Peninsula Club at Lake Norman. Now, the Charlotte metropolitan area is home to about 80 public and private golf courses, according to the N.C. chapter of the National Golf Course Owners Association.

"Real estate developers utilize golf as a vehicle to help sell," said David Taylor, president of Pinnacle Golf Properties in Charlotte, which manages golf courses across the Carolinas. "They're very inclined to build and build and build. ... I think there were certainly some concerns about all the courses being built, but everything was going well."

As the real estate market fizzled and new homes sat unsold, golf clubs suffered. The problems have affected mostly newer, mid-tier clubs, versus old-line clubs in established neighborhoods, experts say.

"A lot of these courses never achieved the level of business to be profitable as a standalone entity," said Del Ratcliffe, president of the N.C. owners association who runs a full-service course management company in Charlotte.

"Developers and residents were subsidizing the operation of the golf course. Now developers are strapped themselves, financially, and we've seen the courses are now struggling."

He expects more to follow Firethorne, which was built as part of a luxury neighborhood on 396 acres of rolling countryside and is now being sued by a Rhode Island financial institution, which claims the club is out of money.

A business development consultant with the club said Firethorne's owners were "blindsided" by the lender and that they were working out a way to repay the money they owed. A hearing was set Monday for a court to decide whether to appoint a receiver to take over the property in Marvin, about five miles south of Ballantyne.

Homes at Firethorne, once priced at $600,000 to more than $1.5 million, sold quickly during the early 2000s as the population boomed in Union and Lancaster counties.

Now that migration has slowed, some homes are listed at steep discounts.

Adjusting to new times

Some golf courses' troubles can also be blamed on a societal shift, said Brett Miller of Miller Management Associates Inc., a Fletcher-based golf course brokerage and consulting firm.

Young, wealthy professionals no longer have time to follow a round of golf with a two-hour dinner at the club. They don't always want to wear collared shirts or leave their cell phones in the car. And their spouses and children increasingly want to participate in club activities.

The recent National Golf Foundation report found that qualified nonmember prospects often have spouses who play golf or are interested in the sport. Many are younger and more affluent than existing members - but don't have time to play as much. The report found that those prospects currently play half the rounds that members play.

While some newer clubs have already been responding to these shifting attitudes, others are paying attention for the first time, because the economy has made it crucial for their bottom lines, Miller said.

"They're recognizing that tradition is great, but there's some traditional things you can't do anymore," he said. "You can't expect society to wear a blue blazer and tie every time you walk into the clubhouse."

At Ballantyne Country Club, which says it remained profitable last year, programs like a Wednesday "family night buffet," free kids' meals on Sunday nights and free child care have helped add value to the memberships, said membership director Maureen Kindred.

And at troubled Firethorne, member Terri Patton said she appreciates the club's family-oriented offerings, such as "drive-in movie night," where members watch movies from golf carts parked on the driving range. A recent e-mail blast Patton shared highlighted events including a father-daughter dance and an all-you-can-eat pasta buffet.

The Club at Longview, built in 2003 in Weddington, has long promoted its family-friendly atmosphere, with everything from junior golf programs to children's birthday parties in the "youth lodge."

The 300-member club, like others, is also appealing to prospective members' wallets, dropping initiation fees to $65,000 from $80,000 last year and freezing monthly dues this year and last at $732 for full members, membership director Kimberly Staton said.

About a year ago, it also began offering promotional memberships, where new members pay $5,000, plus dues, to try the club for 18 months before committing to a full membership. Staton said she hopes to draw 30 new members this year.

"It's the survival of the club," she said, adding that 30 new members have taken advantage of the trial program so far.

Membership at Cedarwood Country Club in south Charlotte was full a few years ago, with 500 golfers and a waiting list, "but then the downturn hit," general manager Maury Clodfelter said.

The member roll dipped as much as 15 percent in February 2009 and has since climbed back to around 460.

To compensate, Cedarwood began offering financing plans for initiation fees. It also launched a winter membership drive, which has since attracted 40 new members, that offers a lower initiation fee.

Clodfelter expects membership to hit 480 by the end of the summer.

Jon Wolf of south Charlotte joined Providence Country Club recently, largely because it offered a 60-day trial and, at the end of that period, the chance to pay the $25,000 full membership initiation fee in installments.

"It's a pretty significant ... mental and financial commitment when you join a club," said Wolf, 63, who is retired but runs a small consulting company. "... I didn't have to worry about writing that big check and then having knots in my stomach."

Membership at the club is around 750 - lower than in some years but much higher than others, such as after Sept. 11, 2001, membership director Brooke Kaiser said.

"Fortunately, we're not one of the most expensive clubs or one of the least," she said. "This kind of fits comfortably into the Charlotte lifestyle."

Too few golfers

Such efforts might be enough to save many country clubs, experts say. But they expect more closures and other dramatic measures as the economy recovers.

Some say it could take two years for consumer confidence to return enough to boost spending on discretionary entertainment such as golf outings.

Even after that, courses might have to cope by opening their restaurants or courses to the public, eliminating weekday dinners, adding family-friendly programming and loosening old standards such as dress codes, experts say.

Miller, the Fletcher consultant, said a wave of private clubs across the country will probably become semi-private, holding corporate and charity tournaments to raise revenue, while others will go further and become completely public, he said.

He points to the aftermath of the Great Depression: The golf industry didn't bounce back until the 1950s, helped in part by Arnold Palmer's popularity, he said.

"It's not going to be two or three years," Miller said. "This is going to be at least a five- to 10-year correction. There were a lot of golf courses built, and it's saturated out there. We just don't have enough golfers."

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