Famous members of Winged Foot Golf Club are Donald Trump, Rick Pitino, Tommy Armour, Tom Robbins, Jimmy McHale and Joe Gagliardi.
Boasting a history of more than 100 years of existence, Winged Foot ranks among America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. Forbes also named it to its list of the Top 25 Most Exclusive Golf And Country Clubs In The World, honored with platinum status in 2018.
Due to its rich history and two lush golf grounds, each having 18 holes, the Winged Foot Club offers luxury and grandeur for its elite members.
Apart from its exclusiveness and high reputation in the country, it has been a venue for notable pro golf tournaments, including the U.S. Amateur in 1940 and 2004.
Meanwhile, the West Course hosted the U.S. Open six times in 1929, 1959, 1974, 1984, 2006, and 2020 and PGA Championship once in 1997. On the other hand, the East Course hosted the U.S. Women’s Open twice, in 1957 and 1972, and the U.S. Senior Open once in 1980.
Thus, Winged Foot is also a probable venue for future competitions where more numbers of big names will flock in soon to become its members.
Winged Foot Golf Club Members List
Famous Winged Foot members are:
- Charles “Nibs” Nobles
- John Anderson
- Jess Sweetser
- Rick Pitino
- Donald Trump
- Tommy Armour
- Dick Chapman
- Tom Robbins
- Jimmy McHale
- Joe Gagliardi
Charles “Nibs” Nobles
Charles Nobles is widely known as one of the founders of the club. He led a group of deserting New York Athletic Club members to build a golf course.
Nibs also hired architect A.W. Tillinghast to design their dream golf course, now known as the East and West courses in the Winged Foot.
Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino is the current head coach for the St. John’s Red Storm men’s basketball team. The 70-year-old coach only took the offer in 2023 since the uni team is based in Queens, New York.
Pitino can remain close to his home and his golf club. His love for the sport became vivid during the 2020 U.S. Open when he watched the tournament from his backyard.
His house is near the third green of the Winged Foot. Rick was joined by his then-Iona assistant coaches, Tom Abatemarco and Ricky Johns.
Donald Trump
The former U.S. President, Donald Trump, has been a member of the club since 1969, a year after he graduated from the Wharton School. Interestingly, this is the only club where he is only a member and not the owner of the property.
As golfing is his “primary form of exercise,” the Trump organization started building and buying golf courses in 1999. The organization now owns fourteen golf courses and manages another three worldwide.
Despite his own golf properties, the billionaire makes regular trips to Winged Foot, indicating that the club is quite a special one and given his more than 50 years of time there.
Winged Foot Head Professionals
With so many other names following behind, Winged Foot also chooses its head professionals who have made quite a name in pro golf. All of the head professionals of the club are mentioned below with the time of their serving:
| Head Professionals | Years Served |
| Dan Mackie | 1923 – 1924 |
| Mike Brady | 1924 – 1937 |
| Craig Wood | 1938 – 1945 |
| Claude Harmon | 1946 – 1977 |
| Tom Nieporte | 1978 – 2006 |
| John Buczek | 2007 – 2009 |
| Mike Gilmore | 2010 – present |
The professional golfer, Mike Brady, succeeded Dan Mackie as the second head of the club in 1924. Mike is best known for winning nine PGA events between 1916 and 1926.
Brady passed down the mantle to an impressive 21-time PGA Tour titles winner Craig Wood in 1938. Wood is the winner of the 1941 Masters and the U.S. Open tournaments.
His accomplishment marked the first time any golfer won two major titles in the same year. Craig Wood was also a member of three Ryder Cup teams in 1931, 1933, and 1935.
Wood’s successor, Claude Harmon, Sr., won the 1948 Masters when he was still serving in the head position. Claude is the last club pro to win a major championship.
The fifth head of the Club, Tom Nieporte, won three PGA Tour events in 1959, 1960, and 1967. Although Nieporte did not lift any major championship trophy, he bagged a total of 11 professional victories in his career.
John Buczek surpassed Tom as the sixth head professional at the Winged Foot. He is best known for winning the 1972 Holiday Inns Royal Swazi Sun Open by beating Peter Oosterhuis, then regarded as one of the world’s best players.
However, John left behind the Winged Foot and served as one of the six heads of Grandfather Golf & Country Club in Linville, North Carolina.
His successor and the current head professional of the club is Mike Gilmore. Gilmore assumed leadership in 2016. He, along with Mike Diffley from Pelham Country Club, won the Met PGA Senior Team Championship at The Bridge in 2015.
Winged Foot Golf Club Membership Cost
Winged Foot Golf Club Membership fee is $200,000. However, that is only the initiation fee, followed by the accommodation cost on every visit.
Golf.com in 2020 mentioned that the club’s annual dues might come to around $15,000 depending on the type of membership. As expected, one can only be a club member through the club’s invitation. Hence, the waiting list can be as long as a decade or more.
Given the fact that Fobers called it the No. 11 Golf Club in the United States, there is no doubt that hundreds of big names in their career are waiting for the letter of invitation from the Winged Foot.
Apart from its luscious East and West courses, the club also offers up one of the best locker rooms with the best showers of most golf clubs.
Winged Foot is truly a pride of New York while representing it on the international scale. Similarly, the club has one of the highest percentages of single-digit handicappers in their membership, as 189 members had a handicap below 5 in 2020.
Is Winged Foot a Public Course?
No, Winged Foot Golf Club is not a public course. However, it is run by a group of undisclosed business figureheads and, for sure, golf fanatics.
Nibs had marched alongside fellow members of The New York Athletic Club in 1921 to open the club after their original club rebuked the idea of opening a golf course for the members interested in playing the sport.
Thus, the club was founded in 1921 and opened in June 1923. The combination of the East and the West courses went under a major renovation in 2018.
After a century of hosting major golf tournaments and inviting nobility to their membership list, Winged Club has established itself as one of the top-notch private club courses in the U.S.
Brendan Boyle has been serving as the club president, followed by Mike Gilmore as the head professional. Similarly, Colin Burns served as the club’s General Manager for 30 years before moving to The Apogee Club in Hobe Sound as its COO.
While it is a splendid achievement to be a member of the club, it seems the club will remain firm on the selectiveness of its member for now.