The 2025 summer season saw memberships and revenue at the Rye Golf Club golf and swimming complex increase to an all-time high, even as the city-owned facility faces significant capital repair expenses.
“We had a great season,” said Golf Club general manager Christopher Correale. The Club’s 1,371 memberships include 1,017 residents and 354 non-residents. Annual full membership costs $5,698 for residents,and $14,383 for new non-residents, while resident family pool membership costs $1,835 or $4,644 for non-residents. Correale estimated that, including dependents, the club serves some 3,500 members.
The formerly private country club, founded in 1921 as the Rye Country Club on a former estate, was bought by the city in 1965. It operates through a so-called enterprise fund, requiring its operating costs to be offset by revenues. For 2025, the club has estimated that revenues will total $6.5 million, slightly exceeding $6.4 million in costs.
That positive financial picture is tempered, however, by ongoing capital repair needs. Those include $1.4 million this year, $1.4 million in 2026, and $1.1 million in 2027 for golf course bunker and drainage improvements. The club, in addition, has commissioned an assessment of likely swimming pool repairs that will be needed. Correale acknowledged some repairs will be needed, saying “the current pool is still operational and had a great season. I do not want to speculate about what might happen or when until we are further along in the process.”
The club is overseen by the seven-member Rye Golf Club Commission, whose chairman, Terry McCartney, has said, “we are studying our aging pool facilities to determine the best plan for the future.”
The potential cost may test the capacity of the club’s enterprise fund to finance the repairs. The golf club estimates that its financial reserve fund will decline from $3.7 million this year to $2.4 million by 2028, as it covers already-planned repairs to its Whitby Castle dining complex, golf club bunkers, a hitting structure, parking lot repairs, and golf course irrigation and drainage. As recently as 2023, its reserve fund stood at $4.3 million.
Any new capital costs for the swimming pool may test the reserve fund’s capacity. Depending on the scale of additional capital requirements, the city may be forced to play a financial role, similar to the role it has played with the Milton Harbor Boat Basin, in assisting with its $6 million Blind Brook dredging project, key to increasing the depth of the water to accommodate larger boats.
Fees paid by “slipholders” will help to cover that cost, but will do so as repayment on a five-year loan authorized by the City Council to cover costs as they are incurred. The Boat Basin will pay five percent interest on the loan.
Any similar financial decision will fall to the Golf Club Commission, whose members are elected by club members. Increasing revenue to cover costs could include raising membership fees or permitting non-members to use the facility for a day use charge during periods when attendance is low. The club currently permits members of Rye Seniors to use the pool three weekdays per week during the summer.
Raising rates may face resistance, however. A move to raise comprehensive (pool and golf) fees for current non-resident members met City Council resistance. Fees for new non-residents were raised — from $10,129 to $14,282 per year. NO new non-residents have joined, Correale said.
