If you ever happen to get a game on one of the following courses, pinch yourself. In the world of the exclusive golf club, not even billionaires and champion golfers get a look in without knowing a member.

PINE VALLEY GC

Camden County, New Jersey, USA

Pine Valley is generally regarded as the best course in America and arguably the world.

It was designed by George Arthur Crump who died before the course was completed so this remains his only work.

It is a highly exclusive club with an almost hidden entrance, which is via a dirt parking lot and railroad crossing. Pine Valley has a male-only membership and you must be invited by the board of directors to join. There are approximately 1,300 Pine Valley members spread across the world and their names are a tightly held secret.

It is understood that two members were once expelled for charging guests $10,000 for a round.

LAUCALA ISLAND - FIJI

Nearly five years after Nanea opened for play in 2003, David McLay Kidd was back in the Pacific. This time on a private island called Laucala, about 45 minutes’ flying time by private plane from Fiji’s Nadi International Airport.

Laucala was owned for many years by publishing giant Malcolm Forbes. After he died, his family sold it to Dietrich Mateschitz, the man who put Red Bull in every nightclub and 7-11 in the world.

Red Bull helped make Mateschitz extremely wealthy. Forbes says he’s worth $3.7 billion. He owns a Formula One race team and a professional soccer team. He paid for Kidd to build a world-class course out of the thick jungle that covers much of the 3,000-acre resort island.

Unlike the other courses listed here, you don’t need to know a member to play Laucala. You simply need to be loaded. Access to the course, which opened as a full 18-hole layout earlier this year, is for resort guests only. Laucala has 25 villas. To spend just one night in the cheapest bure will set you back $4,000. If you want to stay in Mateschitz’s personal house, which offers views across the entire island, you will need $30,000 … for one night.

By the way, Mateschitz doesn’t play golf but when he stays on the island he uses the course as a walking track.

www.laucala.com

SEMINOLE GOLF CLUB

Juno Beach, Florida

Seminole will forever be infamous for refusing a membership application for Jack William Nicklaus.

The Donald Ross-designed layout is consistently ranked in the top-20 courses in the United States and was the traditional practice course for Ben Hogan is his yearly preparation for the Masters.

Titans of industry and politics as well as royalty have mixed at Seminole since it opened in 1929. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and John F. Kennedy had honorary memberships. The Duke of Windsor was a member for many years.

That said, it is perhaps the easiest of the courses listed here to get a game on … it’s just tough to get a membership.

http://www.seminolegolfcourse.com/

CYPRESS POINT CLUB

Pebble Beach, California, USA

Blink and you might just miss it … that is the sign directing member’s guests to Cypress Point Golf Club. It is a small, easily-missed sign along the Monterey Peninsula’s 17 Mile Drive, which reads ‘Cypress Club’.

The second sign reads ‘Members Only’. What a welcome mat!

Cypress Point hosts, on average, 30 players a day drawn from its 200-250 members, who include corporate giants and political movers and shakers. Big-name celebrities like Clint Eastwood are regulars. Bob Hope was a member for 40 years.

The deep pockets of the members maintains the club’s exclusivity. At the end of every year, Cypress Point divides its total operating costs evenly among the members. They pay even if they haven’t played a round all year.

MUIRFIELD GC

Gullane, Scotland

Unlike most of the clubs appearing in this feature, the home course of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Muirfield in Scotland, actually welcomes visiting players twice a week.

For £185 you can play a round on the course that has hosted 15 Open Championships. That said, if you are a woman, you must be “accompanied by a gentleman player”. Also, there are no lunch facilities for ladies but “sandwiches and drinks can be provided in the Captain’s Room, if ordered in advance”.

It’s not just female players that get the cold treatment at Muirfield. On the evening after winning the 1980 Open Championship, Tom Watson urged Ben Crenshaw, Andy North and Tom Weiskopf to join him on the course for a hit. The foursome was nabbed by club officials and threatened with lifetime bans.

www.muirfield.org.uk

AUGUSTA NATIONAL GC

Augusta, Georgia, USA

Augusta National allegedly has just over 300 members including pillars of Southern society, politicians past and present as well as corporate bigwigs.

The word allegedly is appropriate here as exactly how many members there are at Augusta is a secret, as are most things that occur behind the ‘green velvet curtain’. Course and clubhouse staff are even sworn to secrecy by signing confidentiality agreements.

Augusta infamously doesn’t have a female member and it is only in the past decade that an African-American businessman was admitted as a member. The billionaire founder of Microsoft Bill Gates was denied a membership for many years after he had publicly stated how much he would like to be a member.

Perhaps the best way to get a game at Augusta is to start practising, turn pro and crack a spot in the top-50 of the world ranking to get an invite to the Masters.

www.augusta.com

LE PRINCE DE PROVENCE

Vidauban, France

Legendary course architect Robert Trent Jones Snr was scouring the coastline near the French Riviera in the 1970s when he stumbled across the landscape where ‘Le Prince’ now lies.

Designed with his son, Robert Trent Jones Jnr, the pair created what is now probably the world’s most exclusive course. There are no signs leading to its secluded location in the Provence hills and it has been known for members to blindfold their guests to keep the route secret.

Described as a “true masterpiece” by Jones Jnr, Le Prince did not host a single round for eight years while court action was being taken to allow development surrounding the course. The course was then sold to a group of Norwegian businessman and they won a further court case to allow only members and invited guests play the layout.

NATIONAL GOLF LINKS OF AMERICA

Southampton, New York

Seth Raynor’s mentor, Charles Blair Macdonald, was a pioneering architect and one of the founding fathers of American golf. He was also behind the formation of the National Golf Links, which lies in the heart of the Hamptons – the playground of affluent New Yorkers.

Where there’s big money, there’s exclusivity, and ‘The National’ has been the golfing home away from home for Wall Street bigwigs, financiers and bankers since it opened in 1909.

Amid the windmills, punchbowl greens and punishing bunkers are pristine playing surfaces that see few visitors.

FISHERS ISLAND

Fishers Island, New York

Ranked in America’s top-10 courses, Fishers Island is accessible only by ferry and is a favourite holiday spot for ‘old money’ families and New York high society.

Designed by the acclaimed Seth Raynor and opened for play in 1926, Fishers Island probably hosts less rounds on average per week than Augusta and Cypress Point combined. It might be the hardest course in America to become a member of. To join the club, you need 12 letters of recommendation to be introduced as an associate member. You must also own a house on the island, which is home to just 500 people.

It is understood that the course’s hierarchy once requested a leading American golf magazine not rank their layout saying “we do not wish our course to be ranked, visited or for that matter, known”. Too late!

http://www.fishersislandclub.com

NANEA GC

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA

In recent years, acclaimed Scottish golf course architect David McLay Kidd, who designed Bandon Dunes and the Castle Course at St Andrews, has been the go-to-man for wealthy developers looking to create a spectacular and exclusive property.

Nanea, the brainchild of financial wizard Charles Schwab and Safeway supremo George Roberts, was carved out of the lava-covered mountainside of Hawaii’s Big Island. Covering more than 7,500 yards from the tips, Nanea offers isolation on every hole was well as a Pacific Ocean view … so I am told.

Schwab and Roberts’ brief to Kidd was they wanted a walking course, one that featured fast, demanding putting greens, challenging contours, and plenty of choices from the tee. It had to be a links-style course in the Scottish mould. Apparently Kidd did an outstanding job … apparently.

I learned of the course while playing on the Big Island in 2008. Some of the pros from the local resorts had been lucky enough to play Nanea and enthused about the design and conditioning of the layout.

I called the course seeking to venture out and have a look at this marvel. “It is the view of the membership that they don’t want any publicity so your visit would be pointless. It is a private club,” the dismissive man in the pro shop told me. I assured him I could keep a secret but to no avail.