There’s an exclusive club in Bethesda MD that makes Augusta National look like a women’s club. This high end club, just a couple minute drive from Congressional Country Club is called Burning Tree.

Burning tree is a very exclusive club for many past presidents, congressmen, lobbyists and very well to do’s. Through a connection which will remain nameless I was able to play a round at this club which has virtually a closed guest policy.

When I drove by Congressional on my way to Burning Tree I silently wished I could play there instead of BT. Congressional is obviously very well known and the home to many Open championships.

Amenities

The first thing you deal with at BT is the parking lot, or lack thereof. The members park their Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Porsches etc on the grass behind the 9th green and on the driving range. While on the range I watched a member blade his approach shot over the green and the ball beaned a Rolls Royce parked there. I wouldn’t want to cover that repair bill.

I got to the course fairly early and my “connection” was busy dealing with “international matters” so he told me to make myself at home on the range and get some lunch. No problem!

I hit the range for two hours. Sitting on the range hitting balls and listening in on other member’s conversation was interesting. These two guys were both complaining about the problems they’re having with their airplanes! One guy was complaining about his Lear’s windshield wipers not working correctly. Rough life.

I’d gotten up very early to drive there from Philadelphia so I was very tired after pounding probably 200 balls so I decided to take my host up on his offer and get some lunch. I haven’t been to Augusta National but I’ve seen pictures of the grill room and BT’s grill room looked very similar. I ordered a ham & cheese with and a beer. Strangely enough they told me there was no beer. In fact just about the only drink available was lemonade. What the?

The Course

My connection arrived and we quickly got some caddies and we were off to the course. Burning Tree is a very salty old course. It was actually designed by Alister MacKenzie! The course is lined on both sides with dense trees. The fairways were pretty wide. But if you missed a fairway you’d be in the deep forest.

The forest around the course was so dense that a couple of the greens actually had giant fans which blew air on them to keep the grass alive.

I found the course to be way too short for me. I could have easily played the course with irons only and still been able to reach the par 5’s in two. There were some decent elevation changes on a few of the holes but for the most part it was a short and easy course. I’d call it…ahem, an “old man’s course.”

My Caddie

I managed to shoot a 74, no thanks to my caddie. He was pretty young and he was working hard. Well not really since our bags were on carts. But were it not for his complete inability to read greens I might have shot a few strokes better.

On one hole the caddie told me to play a putt two feet left. Looking at the putt myself I asked “are you sure?” He confirmed so I knocked it two feet left and watched it break…. two more feet left. At that point I no longer asked him to read the greens for me.

The poor guy. He looked right at me on one green and I tossed my ball to him for a ball cleaning. At the split second I tossed it he looked away. Then he looked back just in time for my ball to bean him right in the nose. I apologized and asked if he was OK. He held back the tears.

No Women

After the round we hit the 19th hole. Once again there was no beer, just lemonade. In fact there were NO alcoholic beverages at all. I thought to myself, “what did the Mormons buy this place too?” It was at that point that I heard the reason.

Burning Tree is a “men’s club” exclusively. There are no women’s tees. In fact, women aren’t even allowed on the grounds. I’m not kidding. There’s a men’s locker room, no women’s. There are NO women’s bathrooms. If a woman were to wonder onto the course or into the pro shop, she’d be escorted away.

How does that tie into the missing alcohol? As it turns out the state of Maryland has been trying to get BT to change their policy. Perhaps Martha Burke is from Maryland? But the members of BT have refused to change their men only policy for years. The state imposed fines and the members of BT were so rich they just paid them. The members said they can just keep fining them forever because they’d rather pay the fines than allow women.

After giving up on fines, Maryland yanked Burning Tree’s liquor license and that’s way they only serve lemonade. They’d rather just drink lemonade than allow women.

There’s even a story about when a small prop plane had engine trouble. The pilot, a woman, landed on one of the fairways. She was promptly escorted off the course.

Women do get to visit the course though, one four hour period every year. They’re allowed four hours on Christmas eve to shop for their husbands in the pro shop.

Conclusion

My host could have gotten us a round on Congressional and I have an open invite for next time I’m in the area. I’d much rather play there next time. The BT course itself wasn’t that much to write home about, but the ambiance of the salty old club was very fun.

Along with being a great host for a round of golf and lunch, my “connection” treated me to some great items in the pro shop. I got a couple of hats, couple of golf shirts, logo balls etc. Then to top it off, he mailed me an actual flag from the course!