The sky was cobalt blue and the thermometer approaching 70 as Neil Jungemann paused from his game and surveyed the handful of people making their way across Vashon’s gently undulating golf course Friday morning.

On the one hand, he noted, the paucity of players at Vashon Island Golf & Country Club was good for him: It meant he once again didn’t have to make a tee-time reservation.

On the other hand, he added, it underscored his concerns for the private club’s future, which saw its membership numbers peak a decade ago and is now facing one of the toughest financial stretches in its 44-year history.

It’s a beautiful course, Jungemann noted as he gazed across the fairways, with its views of Quartermaster Harbor and the snow-clad Olympic Mountains. It’s also “tremendously under-utilized,” he added.

“I think the club should be used by every golfer on the Island,” said Jungemann, who’s been a member at the country club for 30 years. “I’d like to see it affordable.”

He’s not alone.

The Island’s only country club — a private establishment with a 9-hole course, swimming pool, tennis courts and a restaurant perched high enough to afford sweeping views — is considering some significant changes in an effort to remain financially solvent. Most significantly, the club’s leadership is discussing a proposal to make it semi-private, meaning that non-members could pay to play a round of golf, take an afternoon swim or dine in the clubhouse. Currently, only members or their guests have access to the 54-acre spread on Maury Island.

Jungemann and his golf buddies last week said they support the initiative, which was discussed Sunday at a membership meeting.

“We can’t keep going the way we’re going; I think this is an answer,” said Alan Mendel.

“Given the economy, I don’t think we have much choice,” Bob Ritzhaupt added.

The club’s difficulties mirror national trends. Across the country, news reports show, private golf courses are struggling, due in part to demographic and lifestyle changes — families are busier, for instance, and interest in golf is in decline.

The recession is also taking a significant toll, especially for those clubs that were already working hard to stay afloat. Nationally, as many as 15 percent of all private clubs in the country are considered “at risk,” with memberships down 29 percent, according to Jim Kass, research director for the National Golf Foundation. More than half of these clubs are operating in the red, the report said.

John de Groen, the club’s president and volunteer general manager, said he thinks the recession has a lot to do with the club’s current struggles. Membership has been declining steadily over the past decade, he noted; more recently, it’s fallen precipitously.

“In the last six months, I blame it strictly on the economy,” he said. “A lot of people who I thought were solid members — who were on committees, who played golf — quit.”

Ten years ago, the club boasted 454 members — 225 of whom were “proprietary,” those who paid for full privileges and have a voting stake in the club. Now, the membership stands at 242, with 118 proprietary members, a membership level that currently costs $273 a month along with a $750 initiation fee.

The decline has been particularly steep recently, said Victoria Miner, office manager. Since January of last year, the club has lost 130 members.

Part of the problem is the club’s aging membership, she said. The average member age is 69; as members die, there aren’t enough younger people to fill the ranks, she said. Clubs across the country are taking steps to appeal to younger families, such as adding fitness centers or arcades. Gone are the days, she noted, when dad worked all week and played golf on the weekend, while mom sat by the pool chatting with friends and watching her kids.

“As an industry, we have to refocus,” she said.

The club has already made a number of changes, most with an eye towards staunching some of its losses and ensuring it stays on solid financial ground, de Groen said. The full-time manager, for instance, was recently let go, and de Groen now fills that role as a volunteer. Other staff positions were cut and wages were reduced, he said. Proprietary members were assessed $300 in January to build up the club’s operating reserves.

The club has also created a new “junior membership” level for people under age 35 — which costs $163 a month. Andy Sears, a Vashon High School math teacher and basketball coach, recently joined because of that new membership level — a fee that made the club affordable for him and his wife.

“We use it a lot. It’s been great for us,” said Sears, an avid golfer.

But many say these moves are Band-Aids — insufficient to ensure the club’s long-term sustainability. As a result, the club is now considering changes that Corey McIntyre, chair of the club’s long-ranging planning committee, calls “transformational.”

Under a proposal that was unveiled to members on Sunday, the club, a nonprofit, would become more like an athletic center, offering a range of services at varying costs, he said. In an effort to draw more members, a fitness center would be built and the pool would eventually be covered — expenses that would be handled by the hoped-for increase in membership and possibly financing. Although the club is struggling, McIntyre said, it currently has little debt.

McIntyre, who owns a Vashon construction firm, is passionate about the need to make changes. Indeed, he said, they’re essential.

“The club is in a major decline. It’s going downhill,” he said. “We’ve found balance by cutting services and staff. The club is financially viable, … but it’s in a spiral that continues downward.”

The move toward becoming semi-private would require foundational changes to the club, including a redistribution of ownership so that those who are now “social members” — paying only for clubhouse or swimming privileges, for instance — would become proprietary members.

Several members who attended Sunday’s meeting seemed open to the proposal, but some didn’t like it, fearing it would mean a dilution in the value of their certificates, McIntyre said. Others want to see the club maintain its private status.

“I think people are receptive to this idea,” he said. “There are a few guys who want to see it remain an exclusive place.”

De Groen, sitting on the clubhouse deck overlooking the fairways on a sunny Friday afternoon, said he believes the club has little choice but to embrace change.

He joined in the mid-’80s so that his daughter could swim, he said; he didn’t even golf at the time. Now an avid golfer, he spends every day at the club, sometimes playing a round but mostly working in the “house,” as he calls the dining room, trying to make sure service and food quality are strong.

Looking around him, he noted the club’s assets — a pleasant dining room, great waitstaff and a golf course that he’s come to love. Asked why he spends his free time worrying about the quality of the Caesar salads and shrimp scampi, he smiled as he looked out over the fairway.

“I want to be here playing golf 20 years from now,” he said.