DELRAY BEACH · Behind the gates of Hamlet Country Club, tension has increased.

Longtime friends aren't talking on the golf course. Card players aren't showing up for games in the clubhouse.

The reason: a dispute among residents about mandatory club membership for new homeowners. It was imposed last year to boost membership and prevent the financial ruin that has bankrupted other golf communities throughout the country.

More than two-thirds of homeowners voted for mandatory membership, but two residents are challenging that with a lawsuit against the homeowners association. The lawsuit claims the required membership is unfair and interferes with their ability to sell their homes.

The new rule requires residents to sell their homes only to people willing to become club members, said Gil Stevens, a retiree who is part of a group supporting the lawsuit. Residents who aren't current members don't have to sell their homes immediately. But those who belong to the club and want to quit their membership must sell their homes.

Opponents see the requirements as a tool to force out older residents who can't afford to play golf and tennis and socialize at the club near Military Trail and West Atlantic Avenue.

"If you are too old, too sick and can't afford the club, you have to move out because the club can't afford to lose a member," Stevens said. "This is cruel, unjust, inhumane and lacks compassion."

Not so, said homeowners association President Herbert Levine, who expects mandatory membership to increase property values and improve the residents' way of life.

"We had a mandate to protect our property," Levine said.

The Hamlet Country Club is the latest private South Florida community to impose mandatory club membership.

Similar requirements already are in place at Stonebridge Golf and Country Club and Boca West, both west of Boca Raton, Hunters Run near Boynton Beach and Delaire in Delray Beach. In Broward County, mandatory country club fees have not been as much of an issue, mainly because there are only a handful of club communities.

Developers of newer communities are making membership mandatory from the beginning, so they won't have to deal with residents canceling their memberships later.

Because of the sour economy and overbuilding of golf clubs, country clubs find themselves looking for ways to deal with growing costs. After more than a decade of profit gains, the average club lost about 6 percent in operating revenue last year, according to Pannell Kerr Forster, an international consulting and research firm.

"It's the first time we've had a loss since 1983," said Kevin Reilly, spokesman for PKF.

Adding to the private clubs' problems is that fewer Americans are playing golf, according to the National Golf Foundation. Those who are playing have at times turned to cheaper public courses rather than joining expensive clubs, Reilly said.

So, for private clubs to survive, a growing number are relying on mandatory membership.

"It's the sign of the times," Levine said.

At Delaire, about 40 new members have joined the Military Trail country club since mandatory membership began three years ago, said President Mal Levenson. The new revenue has brought an expanded fitness center, renovated men's locker room and a new storage room. Many homes' value has increased by $100,000, he said.

"We were in a state of flux and now we're straight," Levenson said.

But Hamlet Country Club residents opposed to mandatory membership aren't buying the argument.

They said the club fees will lop money off the value of their homes when they go to sell them. Requiring membership also will scare off potential homebuyers, they said.

Usually, the initiation fees are $40,000 for golf membership and $10,000 for tennis membership, according to the lawsuit. But those fees have been reduced to $4,000 for golf and $2,500 for tennis for the next three years as an incentive to attract membership, Stevens said. Members must also pay annual fees of $6,000 to $15,000, depending on age and type of membership, Stevens said.

Some residents who aren't club members said they are under pressure to sell their homes in the next three years before the old initiation fees likely get reinstated. They fear that finding prospective buyers will become more difficult. In addition to condominiums, the Hamlet Country Club has about 310 single-family homes.

"This is intimidation," said Hal Womersley, whose wife, Lois, sued the homeowners association. "We have to sell in three years. We're totally at the board's discretion."

Levine said home values have already increased since the mandatory membership rule was imposed.

Four homes that changed hands this year in the Hamlet Country Club neighborhood where the second plaintiff, Hugh Henley, lives have sold for a profit, property records show. One house on Greensward Lane was purchased for $260,000 in 2000 and sold for $400,000 in May.

Stevens said homeowners probably could have earned more money if mandatory membership hadn't been implemented.

The residents who filed the lawsuit have offered to settle, Stevens said. Among other things, they want the homeowners association to waive mandatory memberships for 10 to 15 homeowners who contributed money to help fund the lawsuit. They also are seeking to create a new class of membership, costing $3,000, for all current members who just want to use the club's pool, dining room and fitness center.

That way, Stevens said, members who can't afford the club's higher-end costs can still be members and don't need to move out of the community.

Even if the issue is resolved, tensions in Hamlet Country Club aren't likely to go away soon, Stevens said.

"It's like a war in here," he said.