I want to echo a number of comments.
First to my dear friend Courteney - yes it takes great people to make a great country club.
Second to Shrude - yes it takes a owner and some key members to help make the CC great.
I would like to say that for the most part most CCs offer the same thing as mentioned in the OPs comments and some others. What set some apart are ones that one cannot tell at a glance. Sure one can see if a CC has an active membership that play regularly and have an active Forum.
The problem is what a player cannot see when contemplating joining or changing CCs: The inner happenings in a CC that it has to offer to members.
While I cannot say for other CCs I can say as I am very familiar with The Peoples Club that there are many things a CC can offer that one will not see when on the outside looking in.
For example we have:
1) A single post that has organized hot links to close to 100 posts (internal and WGT Main Forums as well as external pages such as Scott Hope's informative sites) that answer almost every question a member may have at any point in their career.
2) A weekly newsletter post that celebrates (a) every win by every member in both internal and external WGT Tournaments, (b) every great shot by all members that WGT recognized, (c) every hole in one and every albatross hit by a member, (d) every tier promotion and (e) every member that entered or left the CC.
3) A CC Member Only voice chat "station" with 10 channels that about 35% of the members are part of to talk while playing with fellow CC members in their own private space.
4) A Monthly Handicap Tournament with a Handicap for members that is based on analysis over 26,000 current member scores that allows anyone to win and win prizes.
5) Ongoing tournaments that have taken place on a regular basis - Like our Points Championship Tour that is a weekly tournament that has been going on 137 weeks in a row; (we have 2 others as well).
6) Fun special Tournaments. To mention just a few of ours: Scrambled Bangers - where you have to add 1 stroke for every fairway hit and 1 stroke for every green in regulation, or the Irons and Putter Only tournament, or a Bingo, Bango, Bongo tournament.
But the most important things one cannot see from the outside is how helpful members are to fellow members (be that in giving advice to new comers to WGT or helping other members who do not have the ability to obtain free credits); and how respectful members are to their fellow members.
Those last two are what makes a CC a truly great CC.
Ed