If you are a golf enthusiast and have an avid love for the game, give yourself bragging rights by saying you’ve visited one or more of the most prestigious golf courses in the United States! Your friends will be envious, and you’ll have an experience of a lifetime.
Clementon, New Jersey, holds the number one spot on Golf Connoisseur’s list, “The Most Prestigious Private Clubs in America”, with the Pine Valley Golf Club. The course is 623 acres of greens and woodland and is one of the most challenging for even the experienced golfer, requiring use of most, if not all, of the clubs in your golf bag for all of the holes. You can play the regular 18-hole course, or a short 10-hole course. Pine Valley features its own police department. Membership into the club comes directly from the board of directors only.
The Burning Tree Club, in Bethesda, Maryland, is 18-holes on 6,400 yards and has played host to several presidents, members of Congress, military leaders, foreign dignitaries, the Department of Defense, and more. An all-male club that has a strict no-women policy and does not allow liquor on the premises, it also has a no-guest policy, so membership is through strict invitation-only approval.
Wheaton, Illinois, is home to the Chicago Golf Club, the oldest 18-hole golf course in North America. There are only a little over one hundred total members for this prestigious club, which is the fifth most exclusive in the world. Featuring 6,574 yards of greens on bent grass, the course is designed so both nines work in a clockwise fashion, which is unusual.
Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, has played host to more championships than any other American course, with eight U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships, two U.S Women’s Opens, and five U.S. Amateurs under its belt. With 210 bunkers, tight fairways and slick greens, it’s quite possibly the most difficult golf course in North America. Golf great Jack Nicklaus won the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont, which will be hosting the Women’s Open in 2010. Oakmont also requires a dress code that prohibits jeans and requires collared shirts when on the grounds. If you can’t finish a round of golf in under four hours, this may not be the course for you.
Another good private club would be the Fishers Island Club, in Fishers Island, New York. The island is only two miles wide and eight miles long, and being surrounded by water gives every hole a breathtaking view of the watershed. With 6,556 yards of brutal bunkers and rough greens, the only way to play this challenging course is by friending an already-existing member of the Fishers Island Club.
Keep playing, and someday you may be invited to some of these fantastic courses.
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Sun, Feb 15, 2009
Golf Courses