Augusta National Golf Club takes center stage in the golf universe every April—a famously exclusive bastion of private golf that opens its gates to thousands of eager patrons who not only want to watch the best players in the world but see one of the game’s greatest course designs.
The mystique of Augusta National is an inextricable part of the annual Masters Tournament, as 99.999 percent of attendees will likely never get to play the course themselves. But it sure is fun to dream.
There are private golf clubs around the country far more secretive than Augusta National, ones well removed from the public eye. And they like it that way, with an exclusivity that inspires myth and legend. While these are properties that are nearly impossible for most of us to experience, it’s fun to pull back the curtain at least a little bit.
Interestingly, one such course—Canyata in Marshall, Ill.—might be getting at least slightly more accessible. The club, founded by Chicago area businessman Jerry Forsythe as an exclusive retreat for family and friends, is estimated to have hosted only 5,000 rounds since opening in 2005.
But Canyata was recently acquired by Escalante Golf, which is positioning the course it calls “the textbook definition of a hidden gem” as the home club for its luxury golf and travel membership offering. Escalante’s Icon Golf includes a national membership at Canyata along with playing privileges at eight other of the company’s properties, destination golf trips called “Quests,” short getaways termed “Experiences,” and tournaments at renowned destination properties like Pebble Beach.
Another, the ultra-private Institute Golf Club in San Martin, Calif., similarly shed some of its secrecy when it hosted an NCAA regional event in 2023. In 2024, the club—founded by the Fry family in the early 2000s and surrounded by a mile-long fence walled with cypress trees—brought on a sports and entertainment agency with an eye toward hosting professional golf events.
So, what are some of the most exclusive private clubs in the U.S. still shrouded in mystery—including those that might be personal playgrounds for a single person or family?
Cherokee Plantation (Yemassee, S.C.)
Just over an hour inland from Charleston, cell phone reception has been known to drop by the time you drive onto the grounds at Cherokee Plantation, a 7,000-acre sport and leisure retreat for only a couple dozen families or so. The equity “buy-in” to be a part of this enclave, which includes an 18-hole links-style course, was around $3 million several years ago based on shares needed to join. Golf is just one of the outdoor amenities at the stately estate, in addition to hunting, shooting, and equestrian, and it’s not uncommon for only 1,000 rounds-or-so to be played annually.
Cow Neck Preserve (Southampton, N.Y.)
In the wealthy Long Island district known as The Hamptons, there are super high-end and heralded private clubs like Shinnecock, Sebonack, National Golf Links of America, Maidstone, and Friar’s Head. There’s another layout along the Peconic Bay that’s more exclusive than them all: Cow Neck Preserve, a 9-hole course built and owned by Wall Street billionaire Louis Bacon that’s situated on a 540-acre property protected by a conservation easement.
Lake Zurich (Chicago, Ill.)
Unheralded and delightfully old school, Lake Zurich is an experience akin to a time capsule. Its exclusivity is rooted in part by a membership that numbers around 35, but the vibe at a club most Chicago golfers are blissfully unaware of is exceedingly casual. The clubhouse has the look and feel of an old hunting lodge and one of the club’s rules is that there’s no penalty for a lost ball, as inevitably “another player will find and pocket it, making it a stolen ball,” for which there is no penalty. Perhaps the best tale in the club’s history, however, is the derailment of an eminent domain claim from the local railroad. Per legend, members of Lake Zurich procured bodies from the local morgue, buried them on club grounds and had the land reclassified as burial grounds, with the tombstones remaining in place today.
Morefar Back O’Beyond (Brewster, N.Y.)
On 500 acres about an hour north of New York City, the immaculately maintained course at this secretive club with ties to insurance giant AIG has established an air of mystery and myth. The latter is tied in part to the statues scattered throughout the routing, including several in the middle of bunkers, as AIG founder C.V. Starr was an ardent collector of Asian artwork. The lightly played course, reputedly open only to employees of the club’s ownership group, straddles the border of New York and Connecticut, and Starr’s ashes are interred on the 15th tee.
Pocantico Hills (Tarrytown, N.Y.)
In the 1930s, Willie Dunn, fresh off his work of expanding Shinnecock Hills, built a 9-hole routing for John D. Rockefeller on his 3,400-acre estate about 45 minutes north of New York City. Rockefeller, who founded Standard Oil and was one of the wealthiest Americans in history, soon after brought in William Flynn, who transformed Pocantico Hills into a reversible course with nine fairways and 13 greens that could be played as a full 18 holes. Today, only a handful of holes at the Kykuit Estate remain.
The Schonfeld Club (Old Westbury, N.Y.)
This backyard golf course is one of several that architect Rees Jones was commissioned to create, along with Three Ponds Farm, which was built on a private estate in The Hamptons. This unique design, created for Steven Schonfeld, the founder of a securities trading and investment firm, can play as a par-72 course on just 64 acres with its variety of teeing areas and greens. It was originally built in 2008 and expanded in 2011 to feature seven greens in total, allowing for a wide range of par threes, par fours, and par fives. Rumor has it that no one can play unless Schonfeld himself is on property.
Sunnylands (Rancho Mirage, Calif.)
Sunnylands was originally the personal course at the winter home of former U.S. Ambassador Walter Annenberg, a 9-hole layout designed by Dick Wilson set in a desert environment against the backdrop of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains. Today, it’s part of a property that hosts retreats for world leaders and other groundbreakers, innovators, and thinkers “who are creating a better future.” Being president is one way to get a tee time at Sunnylands—Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Ford, Clinton, the Bushes, and Obama have all played—otherwise, you’re probably out of luck. There’s no membership, with invites likely coming through political and world leaders attending a summit or retreat.
TXO (Port Lavaca, Texas)
Situated about two hours from Houston on Texas’s Gulf Coast, this “cool playground” originated as a personal golf course of a wealthy Texan. Formerly known as Wolf Point Ranch, it was laid out by golf architect Mike Nuzzo similarly to the Old Course at St. Andrews—on an open, windswept, and relatively flat piece of property. The course, once ranked No. 1 in the state of Texas, was perhaps even better known for a couple of resident camels and its private airstrip, which gave rise to the TXO name. Today, it’s owned by the founder of the Dormie Network, but it remains outside that national network of private clubs—for now—as a highly exclusive, invitation-only experience.
Windwalker Ranch (Steamboat Springs, Colo.)
Former Augusta National chairman Billy Payne and billionaire investor Dirk Ziff headed the ownership group that purchased this ranch for more than $17 million in 2012 and later built a 9-hole course. Golf, trout fishing, and shooting are the prime amenities at this painfully private lodge, which is reserved for use by a select number of wealthy families within the ownership group and their guests.
What other exclusive golf clubs have you heard about?
