[Jimmy Muratt]

One of the criteria for the list is that all clubs must be at least five years old, hence the lack of many of the modern gems.  

A few of the recent yet pre-2000 modern courses on the list are:
Sand Hills
Double Eagle Club
Ocean Forest
Honors Course
Caves Valley

[Jim Nugent]

Isn't the list very similar to most top 20 courses in the U.S. lists?  

[john_stiles]

They must have emptied more than a few bottles to have ANGC as #2.

There could be endless arguments if it was only GCA merits, but I would have them sober up and start the list again if ANGC wasn't number 1.

[Matt Rossman]

While playing a practice round for the 2002 ametuer qualifier at Camargo CC (#23 on the list) my friend and I were asked to show our ID's on the first tee to the starter. A young married couple showed up in the woods and started following us for a couple of holes. On the fourth tee the guy comes up and ask if he can follow us. After we agreed, he went on to tell us about how he had lived in Cincinatti his entire life and had never even been in the parking lot of the club until that day. I was blown away. This place seems extremly private and well deserving of its high ranking

[Gene Greco]

  As long as we're quibbling, Maidstone should be at or near the top of this list.

  Two one hundred year old golf courses on the ocean, perfectly manicured GRASS tennis courts with players wearing whites only, oceanfront beach club on one of the most beautiful beachfronts in the world complete with 50 year waiting lists for salt water poolside cabanas, grand old clubhouse all located on one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in this world.

  Prospective members' wives must host a tea. Should this social event go awry in any way....well, the blackball falls.

  Only recently an individual (no spouse) was not invited back because he was "too visible." Seems he spent a bit too much time at the club during his first year of membership and he only played twice a week.

   Maidstone is the Hope Diamond of "Society" in this hemisphere and is, at the very least, the finest country club in the world.

    I believe those at "Golf Connoisseur" aren't the connoiseurs they think they are - Pine Valley over Maidstone, Augusta National and Seminole?

   

[Dave_Miller]

Wandering through the local Barnes & Noble today, I found the new issue of Golf Connoisseur magazine and when I saw the cover story was,"Top 100 Most Prestigious Club in the US", it of course drew my attention.  Each club in the top 20 has a paragraph about the club.

The editor actually pokes fun at themselves for doing yet another top 100 list, but theirs is actually pretty interesting and seems well thought out.  Here is a link to the article which I found on their website:  http://www.golfconnoisseur.com/

Here is a partial list, their top 20:
1.  Pine Valley
2.  Augusta National
3.  Cypress Point
4.  Shinnecock Hills
5.  Merion
6.  San Francisco Golf Club
7.  Chicago Golf Club
8.  Seminole
9.  Fishers Island
10. Newport Country Club
11. NGLA
12. Oakmont
13. The Country Club (Brookline)
14. Maidstone
15. Burning Tree
16. Myopia Hunt Club
17. Crystal Downs
18. Oakland Hills
19. Los Angeles CC
20. Garden City Golf Club

This list is a joke. and therefore Null and Void.
Best
Dave

[TEPaul]

"I believe those at "Golf Connoisseur" aren't the connoiseurs they think they are - Pine Valley over Maidstone, Augusta National and Seminole?"

Gene:

I guess everyone has their particular preferences in golf clubs but I sure wouldn't say that about Maidstone and Pine Valley. I know both those clubs really well for the last 25-30 years and the fact is they are just so different from one another and offer such entirely different things to their respective members, they really are almost impossible to compare.

Now Seminole and ANGC, on the other hand, are getting more and more alike every year. They both have this new admissions policy that you can't get into ANGC unless you belong to Seminole and you can't get into Seminole unless you belong to ANGC.

Both clubs refer to this new policy as a "Catch Whatever".  

[TEPaul]

I realize that doesn't make much sense, Gene, but it actually does. Let me explain to you how it works for both clubs.

Last year Seminole and ANGC took in the same five guys. They are so rich and so powerful all five of them actually forgot they already belonged to both clubs.

Some might call that double dipping on the part of the clubs while those five who got double dipped just call it something like renewing your wedding vows.

[Gene Greco]

I know both those clubs really well for the last 25-30 years and the fact is they are just so different from one another and offer such entirely different things to their respective members, they really are almost impossible to compare.

Tom:

  Indeed, you are right. They are completely different.  We're not just referring to men and golf architecture when "prestige" or "exclusivity" are involved. Maidstone is a country club to be enjoyed by the entire family.

         
 
You know what?

I've got better things to do than "discuss" this list because it's crap.

I HATE WINTER!!!!!!!!!!

[Tom Huckaby]

Gene - what, you aren't playing golf tomorrow with a group of fine GCA chaps?

It's times like this that if you didn't love me, you'd hate me.

 

BTW, check your IM in a minute.

TH

[George Pazin]

 As long as we're quibbling, Maidstone should be at or near the top of this list.

  Two one hundred year old golf courses on the ocean, perfectly manicured GRASS tennis courts with players wearing whites only, oceanfront beach club on one of the most beautiful beachfronts in the world complete with 50 year waiting lists for salt water poolside cabanas, grand old clubhouse all located on one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in this world.

  Prospective members' wives must host a tea. Should this social event go awry in any way....well, the blackball falls.

  Only recently an individual (no spouse) was not invited back because he was "too visible." Seems he spent a bit too much time at the club during his first year of membership and he only played twice a week.

   Maidstone is the Hope Diamond of "Society" in this hemisphere and is, at the very least, the finest country club in the world.

    I believe those at "Golf Connoisseur" aren't the connoiseurs they think they are - Pine Valley over Maidstone, Augusta National and Seminole?

   

Thanks for sharing this, Gene, it is one of the more entertaining posts I've seen in awhile.

Makes me think that Tom P's phrase should be extended to the real world as well:

"It's a great big world and there's room in it for all of us."

Winter will be gone soon, and Huck will still be stuck on the West Coast, far away from the wonders of Nebraska and Long Island.... Heck, even Pennsy is special by comparison.

[Tom Huckaby]

George:

Good one!
On those three days a year you guys have that are good golf weather, I'll happily acknowledge the superiority.  Make sure and remind me.

 

[George Pazin]

Come on, it's at least 4 or 5!

Now that I think back, the weather during the 03 Am really was great. I think we got 6-7 virtually rainless days strung together, which JohnV will attest may be a record in the Burgh.

 

[Jim Thompson]

This list is just another example of people not doing their research and avoiding the obvious conflicts so critical to today's game. I don't think they have the guts to ask the really tough question when it come to the most prestigious clubs in America.  We all know who the two most prestigous clubs are, but who wants to caught between the BBGE and the HCORJG?  Talk about prestigious!  Whatsome popl wouldn't do for those bag tags!

Cheers!

JT

[TEPaul]

" Maidstone is a country club to be enjoyed by the entire family."

Gene:

You're sure right about that, and as great as Pine Valley may be, no one ever accused that place of one to be enjoyed by the entire family.  

I just love Maidstone---everything about it. I love the course almost more than any other. I love the club, the clubhouse, the lockeroom, the Beach club and all the different stuff going on. My spagehetti lunches at the Beach, all app 1,000  of them, are memorable too. You just never know who you might bump into at the Beach club. I used to love to go around the corner on that range and hit balls until I couldn't take it anymore. But what's the most memorable of all to me about Maidstone is it's where I had one of only about 3-4 "Moments" of my entire life. I was standing on the balcony of the clubhouse about 20 years ago at the beginning of the Saturday night party of the Maidstone Bowl. It was such a beautiful evening, the sun had just gone down and I was looking over the two spires of the beach club at the sea and all of a sudden it was almost like I got physically sucked into a time flow where I could just feel all the generations and all the people who'd looked upon that scene and had been part of it over all the substantial years of Maidstone. It wasn't just physical, I could hear the sounds too---the children, the murmurs of all of it etc.

And the weird thing was I'd only had about three sips of my first drink.

Maidstone is very a special place.

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