Talking your way on: the secret to playing top private courses when you're not a member? Sometimes all you have to do is ask

Golf Digest, August, 2004 by Peter Finch

Once a tee time has been established, visiting golfers need to produce a letter of introduction from their home club and a valid handicap card. The letter, still required at a handful of British clubs, needs to verify membership of the guest's home club. (Usually the letter must come from a private country club, but there's a chance you might be able to get by with an official-looking letter from your local muny.) At Muirfield, anyone with proof of a valid handicap (maximum 18 for men, 24 for women) can write or fax the club secretary requesting a tee time. Carnoustie even has a website where you can book tee times, carnoustiegolflinks.com.

Be charitable

Local charity auctions almost always offer foursomes of golf at the best country clubs. So if you're really eager to get on a certain course, hit the charity circuit and bring your checkbook. Even if you don't have the winning bid, it's common to let it be known that you'd be willing to match the contribution to the charity for another foursome. Just be aware that prices at these auctions vary widely. Last year in Fairfield County, Conn., a foursome at Cypress Point went for more than $40,000 at one event and just $3,600 at a similar event one week later. Along the same lines, you can call a club and ask what charity events are held there. If, for example, the Boy Scouts have a fund-raiser, call that organization and ask what it would take to get in the outing.

Mind your manners

Whether you succeed or fail at getting onto the course of your dreams, it always pays to be gracious, says Hughes. "Accept a club's explanation that it can't let you on," he says. "Being insistent or trying to bully your way on doesn't do you any good. They'll remember you the next time you want to play there."

If you do get to play, bring enough cash to pay for your round and your caddies. Credit cards aren't usually an option. And while we're on the subject of money, how about a little something for the pros? Slipping them $50 for arranging your game at another club will go a long way toward making it happen easily the next time.

How not to get onto Augusta National

Joe Hylak-Reinholtz, 31, desperately wanted to play Augusta National Golf Club. He didn't have any members on speed dial. He didn't have a friend of a friend whose wife played bridge with a member's wife. What he did have was a pile of our money, as the winner of our "$2,000 and a Dream" contest (February 2004).

His plan was to wait outside the club with a sign, approach an entering member, and pay him $1,500 for a round at the storied club. (That was the amount remaining after airfare from his home in Springfield, Ill., rental car and lodging.)

Hylak-Reinholtz arrived at the club's front gate at 8 on a Friday morning in May, armed with a cardboard sign explaining that he was a Golf Digest contest winner looking for a round. When the first car pulled onto Magnolia Lane 20 minutes later, he rushed up to it, waving his sign and asking to pay $1,500 to play the course. The Mercedes driver ignored him and drove into the club.