WHEN DID EXCLUSIVITY BECOME COOL?
I recently watched a video on YouTube by a content creator I like quite a bit, Sean Ogle of Breaking Eighty, who was playing Canyata Golf Club in Illinois, a course so private and exclusive most folks (like myself) have never heard of it, let alone played it. And … that’s sort of the point. Here’s a quote from the website for Canyata:
There was no spectacle surrounding its arrival. No rush to be discovered. Instead, the course revealed itself slowly, known first only to those fortunate enough to encounter it. Its reputation spread quietly, carried in whispers among those who recognized something extraordinary. Even national Top 50 recognition arrived without crowds or commerce, as if the course preferred to remain just beyond the noise.
Canyata is among the most celebrated courses in America, and is among the least-known.
Access comes the same way it always has—by invitation, shared among those who understand why places like this are meant to remain rare.
I mean … if you truly understand what that means, you’re doing better than I am. But what I think it means is, “We told our wealthy friends about it, and they told THEIR wealthy friends about it … and if you heard about it, that meant you were the right kind of person, and if you didn’t, well … that was for good reason.”
Ogle’s quote during the video kind of rubbed me the wrong way - and I’m taking this from the transcript which is probably done automatically so forgive me if it’s not 100% accurate:
“I am currently at the most exclusive, least played, Top 100 golf course in America. And to finally be standing here and to get to see this course is one of the cooler things I've gotten to do since I got into the golf world.”
First, get better goals. But also, why? Before I go too far, I don’t mean to really dump on Ogle. He’s built a cool business doing reviews of golf products and I respect the fact that he’s not necessarily a great golfer out there making it look easy like so many others. He feels like a regular guy who has found a niche in the business and gets to be in the golf world for a living. Good for him.
Canyata looks pretty cool, huh? This is probably the only time you or I will see it - and we’re supposed to think that’s also pretty cool. Exclusivity! It’s the new hotness!
And it’s not just Ogle and Canyata - places like The Institute in San Jose are legendary for being so exclusive that CEOs of major firms are regularly told that they can’t get extended an invitation to play.
And of course, uber private courses like Cypress Point and Augusta regularly don’t have tee time reservations because they often only have two to three groups of players out each day, leaving one of the best golf courses in the entire planet virtually empty all day long.
And this is somehow … a virtue?
How did this become something we are supposed to envy or praise? Why is this a good thing?
It’s one thing to look at a place where it’s difficult to get a tee time - a Muirfield, a Sunningdale, a Royal County Down - and do the work to get that tee time, to become a member for a day, etc.
The Walker Cup, a tournament for amateur golfers, is one way folks like me - when they are lucky enough to have friends to give them a ticket - can actually walk the grounds of Cypress Point.
It’s another to celebrate the fact that a club is closed to everyone almost all the time and that somehow this is a good thing. Who wins when we lock the gates? Yes, people join clubs for many reasons, but one is so that they can ensure a smaller group of people vying for tee times, a faster pace of play, etc. But that is, of course, not what we are talking about. And indeed, when you do play at a course and feel like you’re the only person out there, it’s special. But it’s also … weird.
Courses have every right to be as private as they want to be - but I’m not sure we’re doing anybody a service by celebrating the fact that so few people get a chance to ever walk those grounds. This is a bug, not a feature.
