GOLF’s latest Top 100 Courses in the U.S. ranking is out, and if you’d like to play them all, well, join the club. Literally. While some courses on the list are open to the public, the majority are private, some more than others. Which are the toughest to access? We compiled a ranking within a ranking: the 14 most exclusive clubs on our new Top 100 list.
(This is an updated version of a story that originally ran in 2019.)
Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.
Ranking: 6
Hello, friends. Please enjoy our broadcast with minimal commercial interruption. Marvel at the blushing colors of magnolias and dogwoods as you enjoy the soothing trill of birdsong. By Sunday evening, you’ll swear that you’re familiar with every hill and hollow of Alister Mackenzie’s most famous course, which is nice, because unless you’ve got Jimmy Dunne or Peyton Manning on speed-dial, playing it yourself is about as likely as another albatross on the 15th.
Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton, Ill.
Ranking: 12
If you’re the kind of golfer who insists on valet service and a warm and fuzzy welcome at the bag drop, this historic club is not the place for you. One of the five founding member clubs of the United States Golf Association, which was established in 1894, Chicago has slightly more than 100 members. Should one of them happen to invite you out for a round on this C.B. Macdonald-designed beauty, you’ll be asked not to set foot on the grounds until they arrive, and to skedaddle as soon as they depart.
Crystal Downs Country Club, Frankfort, Mich.
Ranking: 23
When architecture buffs start geeking out about the State-side masterworks of Alister Mackenzie, they’re sure to come around to this northern Michigan treasure, which lacks the coastal splendor of Cypress Point and the institutionalized renown of Augusta National but which is, in many eyes, as good as either of those two. Talking about a course is one thing, though. Playing it is another. While the atmosphere at Crystal Downs isn’t stuffy, this club policy is strict: no unaccompanied play outside the shoulder seasons.
Cypress Point Golf Club, Monterey, Calif.
Ranking: 2
“One year they had a big membership drive at Cypress,” Bob Hope once quipped of the club where he belonged. “They drove out 40 members.” What remains today is a roster of some 250 who have ready access to coastal grounds that could pass for a National Park.
Garden City Golf Club, Garden City, N.Y.
Ranking: 28
What’s in a name? Home to a sublime Devereux Emmet design, this hush-hush club was originally known as the Garden City Men’s Club, a name that excluded more than half the human population. These days, women get limited access. Same goes for the rest of us.
Fishers Island Club, Fishers Island, N.Y.
Ranking: 11
An island in the literal and metaphoric sense, this Seth Raynor design sits in the Atlantic, just off the eastern tip of Long Island, accessible only by boat or private aircraft and well beyond the reach of average folk. The money here is so old, you could carbon-date it, and it doesn’t like to call attention to itself. In 1979, when GOLF included Fishers Island in its inaugural ranking of the world’s greatest courses, a club representative sent a letter to the editor: thanks for the nod, it read. Now, please remove us from your list.
Ladera, Thermal, Calif.
Ranking: 87
The Coachella Valley is famous for its annual musical festival, but the recording-industry magnate Irving Azoff had something else in mind when he commissioned Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to build a course along the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains. Specifically, what he wanted was a private hideaway for a tiny membership of friends, colleagues and clients, with initiation dues that are off the charts.
Nanea Golf Club, The Big Island, Hawaii
Ranking: 83
Nanea is not Hawaiian for “nunya business.” But it might as well be. Founded by Charles Schwab and supermarket magnate George Roberts, this understatedly upscale club has been described as a tropical Augusta: a publicity-shy, palm-fringed oasis for the very wealthy and their fortunate friends.
Ohoopee Match Club, Cobbtown, Ga.
Ranking: 44
At this rural hideaway, designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner for the tech entrepreneur Michael Walrath, par means so little that it isn’t even listed on the scorecard. All that matters is how you fare against your opponent. Okay, it also matters if you know a member, which is a long shot. There are fewer than 100.
Old Elm, Highland Park, Ill.
Ranking: 94
This North Side of Chicago club restricts itself to some 200 members, all of them men, many of them CEOs, a good handful of whom also belong to Augusta National. Get the picture? We’ll sketch it more clearly. Along with Chicago Golf Club, it’s about as tough a tee time as there is in the Midwest.
Pine Valley Golf Club, Pine Valley, N.J.
Ranking: 1
One is the loneliest number. And if you’re hoping to play the No. 1-ranked course in the U.S. (and the world), there’s a good chance you’ll wind up feeling left out. It’s not that Pine Valley has a tiny membership (its ranks are relatively large compared to those of other high-prestige clubs). It’s that many of those members don’t live in the area, and unaccompanied play is not allowed.
Seminole Golf Club, Juno Beach, Fla.
Ranking: 17
To get a sense of life at Seminole, picture your standard gated golf community in Florida, with an ostentatious clubhouse, gaudy-money members, ponds with fountains, and geezers riding carts everywhere you turn. Now envision the opposite. “If I were a young man going on the pro tour, I’d try to make arrangements to get on Seminole,” Ben Hogan once said of this Donald Ross design. Sound advice. Then again, Hogan made a lot of things seem easier than they really are.
Sand Hills Golf Club, Mullen, Neb.
Ranking: 7
Drive deep into the cornfields of Nebraska, then drive a little farther and keep going until crops and pasture give way to a heaving dunescape. When you arrive on the grounds of this intensely private club, home to a Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw stunner that Mike Keiser credits as the original great “remote” course, you’ll realize your mistake: everybody else arrived by private jet.
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Southhampton, N.Y.
Ranking: 3
Established in 1891, Shinnecock has a long history but a short members’ list that includes the bigwig likes of Michael Bloomberg and Charles Schwab. Its brilliant William Flynn design has hosted five U.S. Opens, but don’t let that fool you. This club is otherwise mostly closed off unto itself.
