I ended up joining the public course where my group have been playing for several years. The cost worked out to break-even if you play once a week, we play at least twice, so it was a no brainer. After I joined the other 3 in my group joined as well, one of them has kids that play and he got a family membership for only a couple hundred more. I've been looking at joining one of the local country clubs, although it's closer to my house I really can't justify about 4x the cost. I am playing in a tournament at the club this weekend and played a practice round yesterday and the course is nice and they have a very nice practice facility, pool, restaurant, etc.. I still don't think I can justify the cost.