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

Some 40 minutes went by before another car arrived. This time it was an SUV, and its driver, too, turned a deaf ear to Hylak-Reinholtz's pleas. But the Augusta guard could no longer keep quiet. Walking from the guard house, he approached Hylak-Reinholtz and said, "I just want to tell you this is private property." Hylak-Reinholtz said he understood. Because he had not been asked to leave, however, he stood his ground, hoping another member would come along and take the bait.

It was not to be. At 9:20, a club representative called Golf Digest, suggesting that Hylak-Reinholtz leave the premises, which he did immediately.

Our contest winner's Plan B was to take the $1,500 to Hilton Head, where he stayed at the Sea Pines Resort and played Harbour Town, Hilton Head National and Palmetto Dunes. They're pretty good backups, but no Augusta National, which Hylak-Reinholtz retains a hope of playing--in a more conventional manner. "Perhaps I should leave my calendar open," he says, "if any member wishes to invite me after reading this article."

Hunki Yun