TRADITION GOLF CLUB LA QUINTA, Tradition Golf Club  SHAME ON TRADITION GOLF CLUB LA QUINTA CA La Quinta California

I am a licensed broker here in the desert and like the others my writing here will remain anonyms. I have in the past sold homes at Tradition Golf Club. One recent sale was to a buyer who was rejected by the membership committee, (not Jones). There were six committee members present and one of these for personal and vindictive reasons voted against him. I know who she is and I know the personal reason she prevented this very good person from obtaining a golf membership. There is no room for this kind of behavior. I’m guessing the Jones’s also experienced this.

It’s time for Tradition Golf Club to change the way a member is accepted or rejected. Thirty-four owners have decided for one reason or another to opt out of their homes and memberships. This means more people are trying to leave this club and there are no new applicants. The posting online where the club has been asking for 50 new members was a total flop.

It is my recommendation the acceptance or rejection of a club applicants should NOT be decided by a very bigoted committee. Let the entire membership vote on an applicant. If there are concerns over any applicant make the new membership applicant be given a trial period of one year. If the member shows problems like becoming drunk or abusive let his contract contain wording to the affect the club has a right to terminate membership. It is ridiculous that new buyer spending millions of dollars on a home here be rejected because a membership has one voter who does not like their looks or background and would keep the person out. This club needs new blood, it is dying- 34 homes for sale, voting no on a Tony Robbins or Michael Jordan. The members here own this club, don’t let six of these members destroy the club or a general manager who tolerates this kind of behavior.

First the moron that left the bigoted remarks does not represent the club’s members. It’s unfortunate we have this member and if anyone should leave it’s him. I met the Jones about two years ago at The Sandbar restaurant and was very impressed with them. They had just closed escrow on their home here and were excited to have their young grandson meet other children here. The mom and dad are not able to take care of the boy and not wanting the child to go to social services they became the guardians. Mr. Jones was nearing 80 years old and how in the world could he not be a good person by taking on that kind of responsibility? He

also spoke of his service to our country as a Marine veteran. I was very impressed and shocked when I learned they were not approved as social members in our club. I called him recently as we had exchanged numbers and he told me the details of his rejection by Tradition. Three brokers and our membership chair Heidi Risk never informed him of the vetting process which all of us are aware can be tough to say the least. They met with Heidi five times and never once did she tell them there was an approval process. Bill Albers, the principal broker along with a co realtor Jenny Robinson never informed them there was a vetting process. If

they had the couple would have made their offer contingent on social membership and this fiasco would never have happened. I understand from Jones his broker Kathleen O Keef over at The La Quinta Resort and Spa needed her commission so badly she probably told the other two brokers to say nothing. As a matter of fact O Keef when asked just told the Jones’s just take a check over to our member manager and fill out a questionnaire! Horrible and yes shame on these brokers for breaking State law and not informing their buyers there was a difficult vetting process and make sure your offer was on a contingency basis. The same for Heidi

Risk. Also, our GM, Al Castro came from the hardest Golf Community of all, Vintage, so why was not our membership chair not informed? Heidi and Bill Albers are responsible for not informing these buyers and either Castro should make this situation go away or it is probable the Jones’s will call the media and I don’t mean The Desert Sun or KMIR. They will probably use the Associated Press and God Help Us if someone like the morning talk shows or The Washington Post pick this up. The value of our properties and golf memberships will sink like a heavy rock.

Boo h*o Mr. Jones; Tradition Golf Club is a private entity. Just because you purchased a home near our club does not entitle you to a membership. As a matter of fact, our membership committee is here for one purpose only, to keep people like you out. Just because you bought a multimillion dollar home here does not entitle you to mix with the club members. Just because you have sufficient money to squeeze onto the premises does not and never will give you a membership here. Many of us like myself are not millionaires, we are way above that. A millionaire today is common. You are obviously common, basically what I think of as “trailer trash.” As a private club we are entitled to choose or not choose peoples of race, creed or religion. That is what represents a private club. We don’t want the Hollywood Crowd here; we don’t want famous athletes here, especially those we feel would contaminate our club. We don’t want anyone here that does not fit in and our membership committee obviously felt you are in reality inferior. I know I’m speaking on behalf of many of my close friends here even though they would never put it into words. Having said all of this take my advice and get out. No one wants you here, take you and your family and just leave.