Texas does not have one dominant club the way Florida has Boca West. It has a dense, old-money ladder, and the top rung is closer than it looks. Houston Country Club leads the state in total revenue for fiscal 2025, but Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas sits just behind, Northwood Club in Dallas follows, and Dallas Country Club comes next. Those four clubs, packed tightly together in two cities, set the tone for everything below them.
This is the third state in our series, after Florida and California. Texas is a different animal. Its largest clubs range from more than a century old to just over fifty, they cluster in Dallas and Houston, and the steepest climb in the group belongs to a Dallas club that has nearly quadrupled its revenue since fiscal 2019.
The Ten Largest, Ranked
Each club is ranked on its most recent fiscal year through fiscal 2025, labeled below. Eight of the ten are shown for fiscal 2025 and two for fiscal 2024. Together the ten take in $336.6 million, about 46 percent of the roughly $738 million that the 102 Texas clubs in our pool report, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. Dallas holds five places and Houston three, with San Antonio and Austin one each.
Total revenue, latest fiscal year available through FY2025. FY is the year the club’s fiscal period ends. Lakeside and Austin are separated by $814, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data.
| # | Club | City | Fiscal year | Revenue | Prior year | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston Country Club | Houston | FY2025 | $43.5M | $47.2M FY2024 | -7.8% |
| 2 | Brook Hollow Golf Club | Dallas | FY2025 | $40.6M | $25.3M FY2024 | +60.2% |
| 3 | Northwood Club | Dallas | FY2025 | $39.3M | $24.4M FY2024 | +61.5% |
| 4 | Dallas Country Club | Dallas | FY2025 | $38.0M | $34.6M FY2024 | +9.8% |
| 5 | River Oaks Country Club | Houston | FY2024 | $36.7M | $34.6M FY2023 | +5.9% |
| 6 | San Antonio Country Club | San Antonio | FY2025 | $33.7M | $33.9M FY2024 | -0.4% |
| 7 | Bent Tree Country Club | Dallas | FY2024 | $30.1M | $22.9M FY2023 | +31.8% |
| 8 | Lakeside Country Club | Houston | FY2025 | $26.6M | $21.8M FY2024 | +21.9% |
| 9 | Austin Country Club | Austin | FY2025 | $26.6M | $22.9M FY2024 | +16.3% |
| 10 | Dallas Athletic Club | Dallas | FY2025 | $21.4M | $19.2M FY2024 | +11.1% |
Each change compares a club with its own preceding fiscal year, so the column is consistent even though the years differ from row to row.
Houston: Old Names, Big Capital Years
Houston Country Club was founded in 1908, according to the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, and moved to its present site in 1957. It is also the one club in the top ten whose revenue is lower than it was in fiscal 2019, by about 1 percent ($44.0 million then, $43.5 million now), and the fiscal 2025 dip of 7.8 percent follows a fiscal 2024 that included $22.4 million in initiation fees and capital contributions, a line that fell to $15.4 million in fiscal 2025, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. A club that large can swing by several million dollars on member capital alone.
River Oaks Country Club has a Donald Ross-designed course. It is the steadier grower, up 24.5 percent on fiscal 2019. Lakeside Country Club was born in 1951 when a group of prominent Houston businessmen bought land west of town, per GolfPass, and it jumped 21.9 percent in fiscal 2025 to reach $26.6 million.
Dallas: Depth at the Top
No other Texas city puts five clubs in the top ten. Dallas Country Club was officially founded in 1896, according to the Texas Golf Hall of Fame. Its fiscal 2025 revenue of $38.0 million is 16.5 percent above fiscal 2019, a steady rather than spectacular climb, with no initiation revenue reported in the latest year, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data.
The spectacular climb belongs to Brook Hollow Golf Club, the A.W. Tillinghast design that originated in 1920. Its revenue grew from $10.2 million in fiscal 2019 to $40.6 million in fiscal 2025, nearly four times as much, and the club reported no initiation fees in either year, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. We can report the size of the move; we cannot explain it from the public record.
Three more Dallas clubs round out the group. Bent Tree Country Club was founded in 1972 by former Dallas Mayor Robert S. Folsom, opened a 66,000-square-foot clubhouse in 2021, and has Beau Welling redesigning the Desmond Muirhead course for a planned May 2027 reopening. Bent Tree reported $30.1 million in fiscal 2024, up 31.8 percent from $22.9 million in fiscal 2023, including $12.7 million in initiation fees and capital contributions, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. Northwood Club hosted the 1952 U.S. Open, won by Julius Boros, according to The Dallas Morning News. Northwood reported $39.3 million in fiscal 2025, up 61.5 percent from $24.4 million in fiscal 2024, including about $22.0 million in initiation fees and capital contributions, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. The club is also renovating its clubhouse. The project record “Northwood Club,” published by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, estimates the project at $60 million. The project page “Northwood Country Club Renovation,” published by Beck Group, lists Beck for preconstruction and construction, with Rottet Studio and MAI Architects as the designers. Dallas Athletic Club began in 1919 as a plan for a downtown athletic club and, by its own account, is where Jack Nicklaus won the 1963 PGA Championship. It reports $21.4 million for fiscal 2025, up 11.1 percent, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data.
San Antonio and Austin
San Antonio Country Club was formed in 1904 to promote “golf, tennis, and other innocent outdoor sports,” in the club’s own words. It has nearly doubled its revenue since fiscal 2019, up 87.5 percent to $33.7 million, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data.
In Austin, Austin Country Club was founded in 1899 and began hosting the WGC Dell Match Play in 2016 on its Pete Dye course, according to the PGA Tour. It reports $26.6 million for fiscal 2025, 16.3 percent above the year before and 34.8 percent above fiscal 2019, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data, which leaves it in a dead heat with Lakeside by any reasonable standard.
The Statewide Picture
Across 97 Texas clubs with both fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024 on record, combined revenue rose 4.7 percent, from $615.0 million to $644.1 million, and 27 of the 97, about 28 percent, reported a decline, while over a longer arc the 96 clubs with fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024 on record grew from $460.0 million to $627.0 million, up 36.3 percent, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. That is healthy growth, but well behind the 51.9 percent we measured for Florida over the same window, and the one-year pace is less than half of Florida’s 9.9 percent.
Just outside the top ten, Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth reports $21.2 million for fiscal 2025, about $177,000 behind Dallas Athletic Club, and The Briar Club in Houston reports $19.6 million for fiscal 2025, according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data. Fort Worth has no club in the top ten.
What This Means for Your Club
Separate capital from operating revenue before you tell the story. Houston, Bent Tree, Northwood and San Antonio each carried millions in initiation fees and capital contributions. A growth number that blends the two sets expectations the next year cannot meet.
Benchmark inside your own city first. Texas membership is intensely local, and five of the ten largest clubs share a metro. A board is better served comparing itself with the clubs its prospects actually tour. Our guide to country club membership costs is a useful companion when the question becomes pricing.
Do not assume the leaders are growing. The state’s largest club shrank in its latest year, and San Antonio was flat. Scale is no guarantee of momentum.
Plan for scrutiny. These numbers are public and can be pulled by any member or prospect in minutes. Explain your own results first.
How We Did This
Figures are from each club’s public IRS returns via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer and the IRS data archive. FY is the year the fiscal period ends, and each club is ranked on its latest available year through FY2025, so the list mixes FY2024 and FY2025. We matched 102 Texas 501(c)(7) clubs in the Private Club Marketing database to a fiscal year of 2024 or later. Clubs organized as for-profit companies or residential associations do not publish comparable financials and are not ranked, so this is a ranking of member-owned, tax-exempt Texas clubs, not every private club in the state. Revenue includes all sources, including member capital. The pool total and the statewide growth figures come from same-club panels of 97 clubs (FY2023 to FY2024) and 96 clubs (FY2019 to FY2024), according to Private Club Marketing’s analysis of IRS data; they cannot be reproduced from any single public page. Historical details come from the club sites and the pages linked in the text.
See how other states compare in our rankings of the highest-revenue California clubs and the highest-revenue Florida clubs. If your club is planning its next membership push, Private Club Marketing has worked with top private clubs since 2009 and brings that experience to country club marketing. Talk with us.
Club-by-club sources
- Houston Country Club (EIN 74-0693540)
- Brook Hollow Golf Club (EIN 75-0156800)
- Northwood Club (EIN 75-0723170)
- Dallas Country Club (EIN 75-0223570)
- River Oaks Country Club (EIN 74-0865200)
- San Antonio Country Club (EIN 74-0878940)
- Bent Tree Country Club (EIN 75-1386704)
- Lakeside Country Club (EIN 74-1170526)
- Austin Country Club (EIN 74-0575117)
- Dallas Athletic Club (EIN 75-0223180)
- The Briar Club (EIN 74-1094814)
- Shady Oaks Country Club (EIN 75-1282255)
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