Burning Tree Club

Laid out by Charles Hugh Alison of the Colt, Mackenzie and Alison firm in 1923, Burning Tree is an all-male club set on 140 acres of wooded, rolling terrain just off the Capital Beltway in Bethesda. The par-71 course features contoured greens, selective bunkering, only two water hazards, and a design philosophy that relies on natural ground movement and shotmaking precision rather than forced carries.

Burning Tree Club was founded in 1922 by a group of golfers from the nearby Chevy Chase Club who, according to club lore, had grown frustrated waiting behind slower-playing groups. The founding members resolved to create a club devoted solely to golf, and developer and banker Walter Tuckerman played a central role by donating 30 acres of land and helping establish the initial board of directors. The club secured approximately 140 acres of rolling, wooded hillside in Bethesda, Maryland, and engaged the London-based architectural firm of Colt, Mackenzie and Alison to design the course. Charles Hugh Alison served as the primary architect, making it one of only 16 courses he designed in America. The course construction was handled by Toomey and Flynn Contracting Engineers, and it opened for play in 1923. Alison's design featured quick, contoured greens, selective greenside bunkers, and only two water hazards across the entire layout. A distinctive feature of the original design, attributed to founding member Marshall Whitlatch, was three long par fours of approximately 480 yards with no par fives — a highly unusual configuration for the era. Fourteen of the original Alison greens remain intact today, while four have been rebuilt over time. In 1940, Donald Ross was invited to propose improvements to the course, but the club rejected most of his recommendations. William Flynn performed subsequent work primarily on the back nine. In 1953, the club commissioned Robert Trent Jones to assess and modernize the layout.

Jones's recommendations led to targeted redesigns of the greens on holes 1, 5, 7, and 8, and he lengthened several holes, converting some of the long par fours into short par fives to bring the course to its current par of 71. In 1961, the Capital Beltway was originally engineered to cut through the back nine, which would have destroyed three holes. The club's politically connected membership successfully lobbied to reroute the highway, preserving the course's integrity. Three holes were nonetheless altered during the Beltway construction. Later restoration work was performed by Ed Ault, Arthur Hills, and Rich Mandell, all of whom sought to preserve Alison's original routing while enhancing the course's resilience to modern equipment. Burning Tree's membership has drawn from the highest levels of the federal government. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush all held memberships or honorary status at the club. Beginning in 1957, Eisenhower frequently arrived by Marine One helicopter. Other notable members have included Chief Justice Warren Burger, Justice Antonin Scalia, Senator Barry Goldwater, House Speakers Tip O'Neill and John Boehner, broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, and Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who won the club championship in 2018 and 2019. Five-star generals Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley and five-star Admiral Chester Nimitz were among the military figures on the membership rolls. The club has maintained a strict all-male policy since its founding. Women are barred from the course and clubhouse, with a limited exception introduced in the 1990s allowing spouses pre-Christmas access to the pro shop. In 1976, Charles T. Duncan became the club's first Black member. In 1986, a female Secret Service agent was barred from accompanying President Reagan onto the property. The membership has historically been capped at approximately 500 resident and non-resident members combined, with roughly 125 honorary members by the 1980s.

Initiation fees were reported at $12,000 in 1983, rising to $75,000 by 2011, with annual dues of approximately $1,700 and $6,000 in those respective years. The club nearly closed during the Great Depression, coming within one day of foreclosure. The club's tax-exempt status became a legal flashpoint in the 1980s. In 1983, Stewart Bainum Jr. challenged the club's property tax exemption, which had reduced its annual taxes from $165,600 to $13,600. In 1984, Judge Irma Raker revoked the exemption, and in 1986, Maryland passed legislation barring tax preferences for clubs that discriminate on the basis of sex. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the exemption denial in 1989, and the club has since paid full property taxes. The Tudor-style clubhouse features period artwork, antique furniture, and communal dining tables. The club's name derives from a tree behind the 13th green in a marshy area where swamp gas created a smoking effect, leading Native Americans to believe the tree was burning. Burning Tree remains one of approximately eight all-male golf clubs in the United States.