Club Life
The quiet rules.
The club is precise about very few things. Those few are set down here, in the manner of the club book, so that no guest need ever wonder.
Dress
By room and by hour
The dress code is not a test; it is the membership's way of dressing for one another. When in doubt, the office's standing answer is a jacket.
| Room or Ground | Gentlemen | Ladies | Noted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whitfield Dining Room | Jacket after six; tie encouraged Saturday | Equivalent evening dress | Denim and athletic wear are never received |
| Founders Grille | Collared shirt; club casual | Club casual | Golf attire welcome until seven |
| The Terrace | Collared shirt; shorts of a tailored kind in season | Garden and club casual | Cover-ups over swim dress, please |
| The Course & Practice Ground | Collared shirt, tucked; slacks or tailored shorts; soft spikes | Golf attire of the same character | No denim, cargo, or athletic shorts |
| The Racquets Courts | Tennis attire; whites on Court Four for sanctioned play | Tennis attire of the same character | Court shoes only on the clay |
| The Croquet Lawn | Whites for sanctioned play; garden casual otherwise | Whites for sanctioned play | Flat-soled shoes, always |
| The Pools | Swim dress within the pool fences; cover-ups to and from | The family pool is a children's place until five | |
| Harvest Ball & Twelfth Night | Black tie | Evening dress | Without exception since 1921 |
The House Customs
Etiquette, as kept at Ridgemont
Telephones. Telephones are not taken in the dining rooms, the Library, the Card Room, or on the veranda. The telephone booths off the great hall — actual booths, with seats — remain in daily use for the purpose.
Chits. Nothing is signed before eleven in the morning; the custom dates to 1915 and a governor who disliked paperwork before breakfast. Member numbers are known to the staff; cards are never required.
Hats. Gentlemen's hats come off inside the house, as they have since the house had a roof. The starter's porch is the last outpost of the cap.
Pace and repair. On the course, four hours is expected. Divots are replaced, bunkers raked, and the pin tended for the group behind — the three courtesies the professional mentions by name at every spring clinic.
Guests
The guest of a member is the guest of the club
Guests are welcome in a member's company at nearly every hour the club keeps. On the course, a guest plays accompanied, twice per calendar month; on the racquets courts, guests are welcomed without count on weekdays. A member introducing a guest to the house is asked simply to write the name in the book at the front door — a custom that has run unbroken since 1914, in the same series of books.
Twelve guest cottages along the allée sleep a member's house guests at $285 the night, breakfast in the Grille included. House guests use the club as the member does, the member's number doing the quiet work.
- GolfAccompanied; twice per calendar month per guest$225
- RacquetsWeekdays without count; weekends with the pro's office$35
- DiningIn a member's company, all roomsMember's number
- CottagesTwelve cottages, two nights to seven$285 / night
Away
The reciprocal list
Ridgemont keeps a deliberately short list of clubs whose members it receives as its own, and whose doors open the same way to ours. Letters of introduction are written by the General Manager with two weeks' notice; the favor is returned in kind.
At Home
- The Merriweather Club — Charleston, South Carolina
- The Cheshire Hunt Club — Wilmington, Delaware
- Oxbridge Fields — Middleburg, Virginia
- The Palmetto Field Club — Aiken, South Carolina
- Linville Bluffs Club — Linville, North Carolina
- The Essex Meadows Club — Essex, Connecticut
Abroad
- The Camberwick Club — Edinburgh, Scotland
- Ballysheen House — County Kerry, Ireland
- The Wentworth Downs Club — Surrey, England
- Club du Bois Royal — Chantilly, France
- The Karoo Fields Club — Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Kyōto Hills Club — Kyoto, Japan
The Custom
A member traveling to a reciprocal club writes to Mr. Merritt's office a fortnight ahead; the letter goes out under the club's seal, and the answer nearly always returns within the week. Reciprocals entertain our members to golf, racquets, and the table; the cottage privileges remain ours alone.