How To Play A Private 100 Greatest Course

If you've been unable to cultivate friends at the 100 Greatest Courses you long to play—or can't qualify for a USGA event scheduled at one of them—don't give up. There are other opportunities to post a round and support a charity at the same time. 

Just ask Keith Bank of KB Partners outside Chicago. In 1996 Bank contacted the American Cancer Society and volunteered to organize a fundraiser at Medinah Country Club. For the next 15 years he headed the Chicago Select Golf Invitational, an event that has raised more than $6 million to fight cancer. The opportunity to play Medinah (whose No. 3 course is 31st on the 100 Greatest) has attracted players from all over the country. Twice the event has had to relocate to a different course, but the alternate was another 100 Greatest venue—nearby Olympia Fields Country Club, whose North course is No. 62. The contribution required to participate: $10,000 per foursome for the No. 3 course and $5,000 for the No. 1 course. 

Another thing that helped put the Chicago event on the map was Bank's then-novel idea to auction rounds at other 100 Greatest Courses. One year the 100 Greatest rounds auction alone raised $290,000, Bank says. Although he had occasionally played Medinah before the first American Cancer Society event there, he had not checked many other 100 Greatest Courses off his bucket list. Largely because of his auction purchases, Bank at one point had played 91 of the courses on Golf Digest's ranking, including 49 of the top 50. Says Bank: "I tell my wife that because the list changes, I'll never be done."