Club glossary

The private club glossary

The words clubs use every day — on the tee sheet, on the statement and in the kitchen — defined plainly.

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Accounts receivable aging: A report that sorts unpaid member and non-member balances by days past due — current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ — so the office knows whom to call.
Assessment: A charge a club levies on members beyond regular dues, usually to fund a capital project or cover an operating shortfall, approved by the board or members.

BEO (banquet event order): The working document for a catered event — timeline, room, menu, counts, setup and billing — that sales, kitchen and service all run the function from.

Capital assessment: A member charge that funds capital projects — a clubhouse renovation, irrigation, bunkers — kept apart from operating revenue and often paid in installments.
Cart fee: The charge for using a golf cart for a round, billed per rider or per cart; members often prepay through an annual cart plan, guests pay it per round.
Chit: The itemized slip a member signs to charge food, drinks or merchandise to their house account instead of paying — the record behind each statement line.
Club management software: Software that runs a private club — tee sheet, point of sale, member billing, accounting, events and member app — ideally on one system and member record.
Course Handicap™: The number of strokes a player receives from a set of tees, calculated from their Handicap Index® with that tee's Slope Rating®, Course Rating™ and par.
Course Rating™: The USGA's measure of how difficult a set of tees plays for a scratch golfer under normal course and weather conditions, stated in strokes to one decimal place.
Crossover start: A two-tee start in which groups go off the 1st and 10th tees at once and cross over to the other nine at the turn, so the sheet must hold gaps for them to fill.

Dues: The recurring charge — monthly, quarterly or annual — that members pay to belong to the club, set by membership category and billed on the statement.

Equity club: A private club owned by its members, who buy an equity share on joining, elect the board and fund capital needs, rather than a club owned by a company.

Food & beverage minimum: An amount a member commits to spend on food and drink at the club each month, quarter or year; any unspent balance is billed as a shortfall charge.
Four-ball: A form of play in which two partners each play their own ball and the lower of their scores on each hole is the side's score, in match or stroke play.

General ledger: The club's book of record: every transaction posted as debits and credits to the chart of accounts, from which the financial statements are built.
Guaranteed count: The number of guests an event host commits to pay for, confirmed days before a catered function; the club bills at least that number if fewer attend.
Guest fee: The charge for a member's guest to play or use the club, usually billed to the sponsoring member and priced by season, day, holes and type of guest.

Halfway house: The snack bar or small kitchen near the 9th green or 10th tee where golfers pick up food and drinks at the turn, usually charged to a house account.
Handicap allowance: The percentage of a Course Handicap a player receives in a format — 95% in individual stroke play, 85% in four-ball — per the Rules of Handicapping.
Handicap Index®: The USGA's measure of a golfer's demonstrated ability, calculated from the best 8 of their latest 20 Score Differentials and portable between courses.
House account: A member's charge account at the club: purchases in the grill, the golf shop and at events post to it, and the balance is billed on the monthly statement.

Initiation fee: The one-time fee a new member pays to join a private club, separate from dues; it may be refundable or not and is often payable in installments.

Kitchen display system (KDS): Kitchen screens that replace paper tickets: orders arrive from the point of sale by station, are fired by course and are bumped when the plate is up.

Match play: A form of play in which a player or side competes against an opponent hole by hole; a match ends when one side leads by more holes than remain.
Member-guest: A club's signature invitational in which each member partners an invited guest as a team, usually over two or three days in flights played as round robins.
Membership category: A class of membership — full golf, social, junior, nonresident — that sets a member's dues, privileges, booking rights and any food and beverage minimum.

Pace of play: How long a group takes to play its round, measured against the target the club sets for each hole and the full round, and managed from the first tee.
Playing Handicap™: The strokes a player actually gives or receives in a round or competition: their Course Handicap multiplied by the handicap allowance for the format.
Point of sale (POS): The register software and hardware a club rings sales on — golf shop, grill, bar and halfway house — charging house accounts or taking card and cash.

Reciprocity: An arrangement between private clubs that lets a member of one play or dine at another, usually booked through the member's own pro or manager.
Round robin: A format in which every team in a flight plays a match against every other team, often nine holes at a time, with points deciding the flight winner.

Scramble: A team format in which every player tees off, the team picks the best shot and all play from there until holed — the standard format for outings.
Service charge: A mandatory percentage the club adds to a check or event bill; because the club sets it, the IRS treats amounts paid to staff from it as wages rather than tips.
Shotgun start: A start in which every group tees off at the same time from a different hole, so the field begins and finishes together — the usual format for events.
Slope Rating®: The USGA's measure of how much harder a set of tees plays for a bogey golfer than for a scratch golfer, on a scale of 55 to 155 with 113 as standard difficulty.
Stableford: A form of stroke play that awards points on each hole against a fixed target score — 2 for par, 3 for a birdie — and the highest point total wins.
Standing tee time: A tee time held for the same group at the same time every week — the Saturday 8:00 game — reserved on the sheet automatically, not rebooked each week.
Starter sheet: The starter's working copy of the day's tee sheet: every group, its players, carts and guests, checked in and sent off the first tee in order and on time.

Tee sheet: The schedule of a course's tee times for a day — who plays, when, from which tee, with guests and carts — plus the rules that decide who can book what.
Tee time lottery: A booking method in which members request preferred times before a deadline and the club allocates the most wanted times by a fair draw, not first come.

Unrelated business income (UBI): For a 501(c)(7) social club, income from sources other than members — nonmember sales, investment income — that is taxable and reported on Form 990-T.
USFRC: The Uniform System of Financial Reporting for Clubs: the industry-standard chart of accounts and departmental statement format, published by HFTP with CMAA.

Waitlist: A queue of members who want a tee time or table that is full; when a spot opens it is offered to the next member in line for a limited time, then moves on.
White-label app: A member app built on a shared platform but published under the club's own name, icon and colors, so members download their club's app rather than the vendor's.

Thirty minutes, your club's brand on the screen, and the parts of the day you care about most.