Private golf courses are often stereotyped as boys clubs, with a small population of elderly men dictating who can join and who can’t from a gated clubhouse.

Three local private courses, two in Nashua and one in Bedford, are active in the recruitment process and their members continue to get younger and more diverse as the economy rebounds.

Golf pro Dick Dichard at Nashua Country Club, located appropriately on Fairway Street near Rivier College, said the club has been “mostly an old-time membership” for years, but there’s a youth movement starting to show up.

“Right now, it seems like the new world order is in,” he said. “The younger generation is coming in and attracting more families.”

Rich Ingraham, director of golf at Sky Meadow Country Club, located off Spit Brook Road in Nashua, said his club has seen a similar trend. He said the average member is about 45 years old, which “makes a difference” in recruiting new players.

“Many clubs have that stigma that it’s an old club or an aging membership, but we’re seeing a lot of younger faces than we had,” said Scott Semple, general manager at Bedford’s Manchester Country Club.

One of the hurdles to getting younger members is cost. Many younger players haven’t hit the income bracket to afford dues and initiation fees at a private club.

So just how expensive is it to join a private course? Well, that’s a topic officials at the three courses declined to discuss.

None of the courses released financial details or membership costs. The only club to give any hints was Manchester Country Club, where Semple said members pay annual dues, on top of an initiation fee and member certificate fee for joining the club. If players leave, they are reimbursed 80 percent of the member certificate fee.

And for the average Joe who wants to take a swing at one of these private courses, the only way to play is to get on with a member.

Most public courses in the area don’t bother trying to compete. Golf pro Brian Doyle, of Hudson’s public Green Meadow Golf Club, called the two options “apples and oranges” and said golfers often like it one way or the other.

“Private players don’t mind playing the same course over and over again, while public players sometimes like to play different spots,” said John McNeil, general manager at The Overlook Golf Club, a public course in Hollis. “They don’t like to feel locked into that course. They choose a public course to get a variety.”

McNeil said many public players used to choose private course memberships because public courses were so packed and it was difficult to make tee times any day of the week. But in the past five years during a down economy, the public courses are more open and fewer people are playing golf anywhere.

“For a lot of people, when money’s tight, the first thing they give up is golf memberships,” McNeil said.

Both of Nashua’s private courses are accepting and recruiting new members but are near capacity, while Manchester Country Club has a waiting list of people who want to join.

Nashua Country Club’s Dichard said most recruitment happens through word of mouth or guests visiting the club. Members bring along friends or business associates and give them an experience at the club to entice them to join.

Most of the members are from Greater Nashua, he said, with a few coming up from northern Massachusetts.

Dichard grew up caddying at Nashua Country Club, starting when he was just 12 years old in 1962. The course opened in 1918 and has always been a private course. Dichard calls it the “finest conditioned course in New Hampshire.”

Dichard pointed to the Nashua club’s dining facility, swimming pools, tennis courts, health and fitness center, and curling rink as reasons that Nashua Country Club has been able to keep members coming back each year.

“It’s not just a golf course,” he said. “It offers a lot more than other golf clubs.”

The economy hasn’t affected membership that much, Dichard said.

“We’re holding our own pretty good,” he said.

Nashua Country Club has about 350 members now, down from a high point of 423 members a few years ago. Dichard said the club has room to grow, looking to increase its membership to 375.

Sky Meadow has about 325 members right now, and Ingraham said he hopes to fill to capacity, 350 members, by the end of the month. The economy had some effect on the membership a few years ago, he said, but attrition was down to below 3 percent last year.

“There’s been a lot of interest this spring,” he said.

Most of Sky Meadow’s recruiting also comes from word of mouth and existing members, Ingraham said.

Semple said Manchester Country Club has a “prospect list” that he and the membership director “constantly cultivate” to attract and recruit new members. But most new members join through “hot referrals,” Semple said, which happen when a friend or business associate plays or comes along to experience the club with a member.

“It’s an internal marketing mechanism that works,” he said.

Manchester Country Club, which has been in Bedford since 1923, has 350 members. Last year, there was only a 1 percent decrease in membership, Semple said. He said about 5 percent attrition is normal.

Weddings and banquets give the Bedford club much of its public exposure, Semple said. Anyone in the wedding party or attending the banquet is allowed to use the facilities, and Semple said some new members join after that experience.

Most of the club members are men, Semple said, but there are also about 75 “spousal golfers” who are members and play with their husbands.

The club has a renovated dining and bar area, which has increased the food and beverage revenue “significantly” in the past year, Semple said. Above all, the best recruiting tool is the 18-hole championship course designed by Donald Ross, the famous golfer who designed about 600 courses between 1900 and 1948.

“The golf course is our crown jewel,” Semple said. “The club’s been around for a long time and has a very good reputation in terms of its golf course.”

Overlook’s McNeil and Green Meadow’s Doyle said they had both played Nashua Country Club and Sky Meadow several times each, and noted that the courses were “more manicured” with fewer players on the course. Not surprisingly, they both said they preferred their home courses to the private atmosphere.

“Green Meadow is a great golf course; I’d put it up against any course,” Doyle said. “We offer the ability to play two rounds a year or 50 rounds a year or anything in between. We have private course conditions for public course money.”

The only area where it seems public courses can’t match up is in maintenance and groundskeeping.

McNeil said private courses “always have a higher budget,” which makes it tough for public courses to keep up with pristine conditions.

“The condition here is immaculate,” Dichard said. “Condition-wise, you’re not going to find a better course.”

Cameron Kittle can be reached at 594-6523 or ckittle@nashuatelegraph.com. Find local courses, specials, tournaments and more at www.nh.com/golf.