Jon Babb resigned from Wade Hampton Golf Club in Cashiers in 2015. Under the club's bylaws, that should have started the clock on getting his initiation fee back once a new member joined behind him. It didn't work out that way. By November 2021, Babb and twelve other resigned members had waited long enough that they filed a federal lawsuit against the club, alleging they were collectively owed roughly $698,000 in fees the club's own rules said it had to pay them.
That case is worth understanding if you're weighing a purchase in any of the private club communities on the Highlands-Cashiers plateau, not because it predicts what will happen to you, but because it shows exactly what kind of financial instrument you're buying into when you write that first check to a club. The number on the brochure is the easy part. What that number actually is, and how you get it back, is where the real homework starts.
A Number That Isn't Really a Price
At Wade Hampton, court filings put the initiation fee for new members at $140,000. That figure gets repeated in local coverage of the case, but the more important detail is what the club's bylaws say happens to that money later. Under the equity redemption model Wade Hampton uses, a member's initiation fee functions less like a purchase and more like a deposit. When a member resigns, they're entitled to get that money back, but only when the club admits a new full member to take their place on a bylaws-defined priority list.
That single sentence is the mechanism worth sitting with. Your ability to convert club membership back into cash doesn't depend on your own decision to leave. It depends on someone else deciding to move to Cashiers and pay to join behind you. If the club's membership pipeline slows down, so does your line.
The Babb case turned on a version of exactly this question. Part of the dispute was whether converting an existing lower tier member (the club has categories including Non-Resident and Double Eagle members) into a Full Regular Member counted as "admitting a new" member under the bylaws, which would trigger a payout to the next person on the list. The club had historically not paid redemptions on those conversions. In January 2024, a federal judge sided with the resigned members' reading of the bylaws and found the club liable for breach of contract, with the exact damages left to be worked out afterward.
When the Line Stopped Moving
The dispute didn't start with the 2021 lawsuit. It traces back to a 2017 renovation project at the club that was initially budgeted at close to $6 million and grew substantially beyond that, according to the plaintiffs' filings. Members say they were told twice, in 2018 and 2019, that their redemption payments would resume. They didn't. In 2021, the club suspended equity redemption payments to resigned members entirely, which is what pushed the group into federal court that November.
The club moved to dismiss most of the claims in early 2022. The case continued, and by January 2024 the court had granted the resigned members partial summary judgment on liability, meaning the breach of contract claim was settled in their favor even though the dollar amount still had to be determined. After that ruling, the plaintiffs asked the court for a fuller summary judgment covering damages, and the club opposed it. Public filings don't show a final number or a closing date for the case as of this writing, which is itself worth noting. A dispute over club fees involving members who resigned in 2015 was still working its way through federal court nearly a decade later.
None of this means something similar will happen at every club on the plateau, or that it will happen again at Wade Hampton. It means that when a club's fee structure ties your money to future membership growth, the timeline for getting it back is out of your hands, and disagreements about the fine print can take years to resolve.
Three Club Models, Three Different Deals
Not every private club on the plateau works the same way, and the differences matter more than the initiation fee alone suggests.
| Club | Reported Initiation Fee | Reported Annual Dues | How Your Money Comes Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wade Hampton Golf Club (Cashiers) | $140,000, per federal court filings | Not established in public court records | Equity redemption, paid out only when the club admits a new full member to your spot on a priority list |
| Old Edwards Club (Highlands) | $150,001 and up | $10,001 to $15,000 | Operated by a hospitality company rather than structured as member equity; no public redemption or buyback obligation |
| Highlands Country Club and the plateau's other traditional clubs | Roughly $60,000 to $105,000 across the six traditional Highlands clubs | $5,000 to $15,000 | Member-owned clubs, each with its own bylaws governing whether and how initiation fees are refunded |
Old Edwards Club sits under Old Edwards Hospitality Group, the same company behind Old Edwards Inn and Spa in downtown Highlands. That's a structurally different arrangement from a member-owned equity club. There's no public evidence of a redemption obligation tied to the initiation fee there, because the fee isn't functioning as member equity in the first place. Highlands Country Club, established in 1928, is one of six traditional member-owned clubs in Highlands, and each of those clubs sets its own bylaws on how, or whether, a departing member's fee gets returned. The point isn't that one model is better. It's that "initiation fee" means different things depending on which document you're actually signing.
What This Means at Today's Prices
These numbers land differently depending on what home you're pairing them with. Highlands' median sale price was near $1.1 to $1.2 million as of August 2026, and Cashiers' median sale price was around $925,000 as of June 2026, with active listings on the plateau reaching past $14 million. A $140,000 club fee on a $1.15 million home purchase adds roughly another 12 percent to what you're putting into the property, on top of dues that continue every year you're a member.
That's not a reason to avoid club living on the plateau. Second-home buyers and retirees come to Highlands and Cashiers precisely for the golf, the social calendar, and the kind of community that a private club provides, and limited resale inventory in these communities has helped support pricing through 2026. It's a reason to ask what kind of asset that fee is before you commit to it, the same way you'd ask about a special assessment or a homeowners association reserve fund anywhere else.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign Anything
A few questions turn this from an abstract mechanism into something you can actually plan around:
- Is club membership included with the property, or is it applied for and paid separately through the club itself?
- Is the initiation fee refundable, and if so, what specific event triggers that refund?
- If there's a waiting list for redemption or a priority list for new members, how has that list actually moved in recent years?
- Are the seller's club dues current, and is there any club-related obligation that could follow the property to a new owner?
These aren't questions with universal answers. Each club sets its own bylaws, and the only way to get a straight answer is to ask the club directly and read the governing documents rather than the marketing material.
The Short Version
A club initiation fee on the Highlands-Cashiers plateau can be a straightforward access cost, or it can be a form of member equity with a payout that depends on someone else joining behind you. Wade Hampton's fee works the second way, and a federal court case that ran from 2021 into 2024 and beyond shows what can happen when the mechanism gets tested. Old Edwards Club and the traditional member-owned clubs in Highlands each set their own terms. Before the initiation fee becomes part of your offer, it's worth knowing which kind of number you're actually writing that check for.
FAQ
Does buying a home in one of these communities automatically include a club membership? Not always, and not the same way everywhere. Wade Hampton membership requires sponsorship from an existing member, with no public application process. Old Edwards Club markets membership and real estate together as connected opportunities. The path to joining depends on the specific club, not just on owning property nearby.
What actually happened in the Wade Hampton lawsuit? Thirteen resigned members sued the club in federal court in November 2021 over suspended equity redemption payments. In January 2024, the court found the club liable for breach of contract on the central legal question. The exact damages owed were still being litigated in filings after that ruling.
Do all the private clubs on the Highlands-Cashiers plateau work the same way? No. Some, like the traditional Highlands clubs, are member-owned with their own bylaws on fees and refunds. Old Edwards Club operates under a hospitality company rather than a member equity model. The only way to know how a specific club handles your fee is to read that club's governing documents.
Club membership is one more variable in an already detailed purchase on the plateau, and it deserves the same scrutiny as the home inspection or the survey. If you're weighing a property tied to Wade Hampton, Old Edwards Club, Highlands Country Club, or any other community on the plateau, Jose Feria can walk through what the club's specific terms mean for your purchase before you sign anything. Work With Feria.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
