In recent years, the club has suffered the same fate as so many other clubs in the United States.

The days when member-owned country clubs served as second homes for businessmen spending long hours playing, eating and drinking at them are mostly gone. Today, as people tend to spend more time with family, memberships to country clubs have decreased, fees have risen and the facilities have fallen into disrepair.

Until the lines are painted and the nets are erected in late May, the grass courts at Orange Lawn together look like a vast, unmanicured putting green. Once they are set up, and dew clings to each blade of grass on a summer morning, they glisten like an emerald carpet.

The rest of the club, which includes the main building, a cafe, paddle ball courts and the lawn in front, is unpretentious, if not a bit scraggly from lack of attention.

As a way to consolidate finances and enhance their facilities, many member-owned clubs have sold to private ownership groups. Part of Mr. Schonbraun’s business is to refurbish dated country clubs, and about two years ago, Orange Lawn hired him as a consultant to redevelop the premises, reduce debt and increase membership.

After several months, the board members asked Mr. Schonbraun, whose sons David and Michael played at Princeton and Colgate, to buy the club outright. He put together a four-person ownership group, with him at the head, and since the group took over, badly needed construction has begun on the facilities.

The group hired Aaron Krickstein, a former No. 6 player in the world, to be its touring pro, meaning he would do clinics and exhibitions and give lessons on the courts that he had played on many times over the years, though never in a main tournament.