JOHN STEINBREDER
E-MAIL JOHN
In a time when traditional golf and
country club memberships often don’t
make as much economic sense as they
once did – or do not seem nearly as socially
enticing – it is comforting to know there are
viable alternatives. Like the Outpost Club.
In fact, places like these could become the
future of club golf.
Just a couple of years old and modeled
after the traditional golf societies of Great
Britain, the Outpost Club boasts a heady
national membership of roughly 500 that
is geared toward serious yet social players
who possess a high golf IQ, fancy architecturally significant courses, relish the
camaraderie of a competitive game, favor
fast play, prefer to walk and like to savor
a drink in the clubhouse with their playing
partners once their rounds are done. But
only after taking off their hats.
The OC does not have a course of its
own, but it doesn’t really need one, thanks
to a variety of relationships it has established with top golf clubs, most of which
are in North America. For starters, it has
three, geographically dispersed home
clubs where members can play without
paying greens fees for a limited number
of days each year. The association also
boasts 50 so-called partner clubs that offer
limited playing privileges as well as more
informal arrangements with more than 30
Reciprocal Clubs.
These tracks are the site of casual
games for OC members and their guests
as well as the venues for the roughly 40
events the club stages each year. The OC
will not release the names of those spots to
the public, but a glance at the list confirms
they are top-rate courses designed by the
likes of Seth Raynor, Charles Blair Mac-
donald, Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie,
William Flynn, Tom Doak, Pete Dye, Gil
Hanse, Tom Fazio, Ben Crenshaw and Bill
Coore, Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, Her-
bert Strong, Mike DeVries and Steve Smy-
ers. Outpost Club members gather at those
places for everything from team challenge
matches and interclubs to member-guests.
There is even an annual winter meeting to
celebrate outgoing and incoming captains.
And we thought the concept was applicable
here, because golf just isn’t sustainable
any more at 6,000 rounds a year for all but
a few places, and because people aren’t
always happy with the way those traditional
retreats now operate.”
Adds fellow co-founder Quentin Lutz,
who once worked for architect Arthur Hills
and was the youngest person ever to play
the complete list of Golf Magazine’s Top 100
Courses in the World: “We wanted to cre-
ate an association of people interested in
playing really interesting golf courses with
really good guys.”
The concept is bold, and it resonates
in a world where many private clubs are
struggling amid a decline in rounds played
and a change in how they are used by
members. The OC also address an increas-
ing frustration with the unpleasant politics
and poor member management at so many
traditional clubs these days, and with en-
vironments where snippy cliques flourish
and social climbing trumps pure love for
golf as a rationale for joining. Especially as
admission standards are lowered to help
fill atrophying memberships rolls, and golf
is diminished as the club’s raison d’être.
