Smiffy
Grand Slam Winner
In your situation I wouldn't rejoin, although as someone else mentioned I'd look for a nice muni close by or something like that rather than join a not so good 9-holer that isn't very close.
Trouble is, we don't have any "muni's" around here. We have two nice courses in Bexhill, Highwoods and Cooden Beach. Both are expensive and only Highwoods offers the "Fairways" membership that I am on at the moment.
Sedlescombe is fairly close, but looking at their website, full membership is £775.00 a year. They offer "Flexi" membership where I can buy "units" to use as my green fee.
£200.00 will buy me 100 units, and a game of golf at week-ends would cost me 10 units. So a round is costing me £20.00 in effect. Their website doesn't state whether this would enable me to take part in competitions or receive an official handicap though. I could make a phone call to find out I guess. But as I've shown above, breaking down my costs at Highwoods sees it working out at £22.00 per round. So it's only £2.00 a round more to play a much better course.
I guess my biggest problem is my preference to play with my mates at week-ends rather than play in club competitions.
If I made a determined effort this year to play in more comps I would feel that I am getting my monies worth I suppose.
But I have been paying £30.00 a month by standing order these past few months and due to one thing or another (weather mostly) I haven't set foot on the course since the middle of October! That's November-March costing me £150.00 for absolutely zilch!