[Greg Cameron]

I don't mean exclusive golf courses with membership,I mean privately owned places where $$ means nothing?Has anyone had  expierence where the less the hype,more the seclusion,the better?Luckily, I have been involved with 3 of these, 2 here in pac norwest,and 1 in the carribean, and all have been islands.Imagine, your own island,your own golf course.Are there many of these?How are they different?One of my examples had crossing fairways  and 2 tee's and 2 greens (back and forth), sharing one fairway,many park benches,and  rarely saw more than one threesome to sixsome  per day.Looked up the Sanctuary  and was impressed to see the  charity side of their web site.Imagine no budget,no players but youself and friends,what would you build?Has it already been built,only I need a winning lotto ticket to buy it?    

[Wayne_Kozun]

Bigwin Island in the Muskoka region north of Toronto was supposed to be one of these.  It is a private club where many of the memberships will go to the folks buying real estate on the island.  You have to take a boat of float plane to get there.  It appears that sales are slower than expected so they are allowing public play for the time being.

[Bob_Huntley]

Back in the early sixties an old friend of mine was the manager of the Nuanetsi Ranch in what was then known as Southern Rhodesia. The cattle ranch was something like 862,000 acres in size , and a domain  to itself.  The nearest town was West Nicholson which housed  the Rhodesian Cold Storage facilty where most of the cattle were slaughtered and prepared for market.

Apart from a wonderful small lake for fishing and abundant game for the table I loved the primitive nine holes that lacked even the rudimentary aspects of a golf course. There was a rough outline of a fairway, numerous anthills and some very rough oil and and sand "greens." It was also as near to a game reserve as you could imgine. Vast herds of impala, duiker and other game.  On my last game on the course, I shot a lion taking down a cow. Just about the last time I was
spot on target.

Bob

[PThomas]

Back in the early sixties an old friend of mine was the manager of the Nuanetsi Ranch in what was then known as Southern Rhodesia. The cattle ranch was something like 862,000 acres in size , and a domain  to itself.  The nearest town was West Nicholson which housed  the Rhodesian Cold Storage facilty where most of the cattle were slaughtered and prepared for market.

Apart from a wonderful small lake for fishing and abundant game for the table I loved the primitive nine holes that lacked even the rudimentary aspects of a golf course. There was a rough outline of a fairway, numerous anthills and some very rough oil and and sand "greens." It was also as near to a game reserve as you could imgine. Vast herds of impala, duiker and other game.  On my last game on the course, I shot a lion taking down a cow. Just about the last time I was
spot on target.

Bob

Bob, I hope you are writing down all of these stories for a book!

[Dale_McCallon]

I've never really figured out why someone would want to have such a "private" course.  To me, one of the great things about golf, is the way the game lends itself to just being able to play with whoever, whenever.

I've always said that if I won the lottery, I would build a public course, but have very well spaced tee times to help eliminate waiting for groups around you.

[George Pazin]

I've never really figured out why someone would want to have such a "private" course.  To me, one of the great things about golf, is the way the game lends itself to just being able to play with whoever, whenever.

Recognize the paradox in these two sentences and you'll figure out why someone would want such a course.

[Tom_Doak]

Greg:

I think if I owned my own private course it would only be a few holes, determined by whatever the land offered.  But it would probably be no more than nine -- even if I was extremely wealthy, I'd still be too frugal to want to maintain 18 holes out of pocket!

[RJ_Daley]

Tom, I'll bet you could come up with one very creative design of a par 3,4,5 course where you could interchange FWs and greens, and create every kind of shot challenge one could imagine...

So Boab, does the Weatherby Mark V or Winchester .458 take the place of the lob wedge and gap wedge?  One must be careful to not exceed the old 12 clubs and 2 rifles provision in the rules.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Tom,
Hypothetically, if you did design your own 18 hole course, what would be your target maintenance budget?

[Mark Pearce]

I believe that Alan Shearer (a recently retired soccer player, for those not recognising the name) has a nine-hole course on his property.  Not sure how big it is or how much it costs to maintain.

[Tony_Muldoon]

...and reputedly Beckingham Palace has 3 holes on the basis that Dick describes above.

[Joel_Stewart]

Ron Whitten did an article sometime ago on private golf courses.  

http://www.golfdigest.com/features/index.ssf?/features/ultimate_2ue2cddc.html

I would like to play 3 Ponds in the Hamptons (now for sale) which is across the street from Atlantic.

[Robin_Hiseman]

If a private course for a company counts then I think the course I've just finished building would merit a mention.

It's in the Czech Republic and has been built for a computer manufacturer.  There will be no members, no corporate memberships and no green fees.  Access will be only be for company executives and corporate clients.

It is 18-holes; a tad under 7,000 yards, par 71, with USGA spec greens and five tee sets per hole.  

There may be entire weeks where nobody plays it -except the greens staff!

[Andrew Balakshin]

Here is a hole none of you will ever get to play!  

I built it back home during high school. You can't really tell from the picture but I moved a lot of dirt when I was shaping it.


Greg,
Are the two courses you are referring to in the Pacific NW James Island (Nicklaus) and Stuart Island (RTJII)?

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