If you’re in the market for a starter home, you might look somewhere other than Southampton.
The Long Island township where the U.S. Open gets underway on Thursday ranks among the spendiest zip codes in the country, with median home prices around $2.5 million. Quadrupling that figure gets you closer to the beach.
This is a luxe milieu of fancy cars and private jets, though a cooler mode of transport would be a time machine. Imagine if you had one. You could spin the clock back to the late 1800s, when this week’s national championship host, Shinnecock Hills, was founded. Seaside property was cheaper then. And Shinnecock owns a lot of it — nearly 300 acres, which were paid off long ago with money old enough to merit carbon-dating.
Not that all the fortunes trace back to the Mayflower. Michael Bloomberg, for instance, has his name above a locker at Shinnecock.
How much would it cost for you to get the same? Fair question.
If you have to ask, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t afford it. But if you have to inquire about an invite, you probably aren’t going to get one. Bankrolls matter, but so do bloodlines. It’s not just what you have. It’s who you know.
As at many prestigious private clubs, Shinnecock keeps its inner-workings quiet. Initiation dues aren’t listed on the website. And members aren’t inclined to discuss dollar amounts.
GOLF consulted with half a dozen sources intimately acquainted with the club to arrive at an educated number. That figure? A cool $175,000 on the low end, but reportedly as high as $200,000.
For most people, that’s a lot of money. But it’s modest by the standards of Long Island private clubs, and a mere rounding error if you’ve managed to purchase a nearby manse.
