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Burning Tree Club
Bethesda, Maryland
- Address8600 Burdette Rd, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA
The course built by Toomey & Flynn Contracting Engineers to a design by C. H. Alison at the private, all-male Burning Tree Club in Bethesda made its debut in 1923. It’s been remodelled a little in the modern era – Robert Trent Jones lengthened it, for instance, converting a couple of long par fours into short par fives – but the current layout retains much of the original design intent.
Legend has it that Burning Tree was formed after a male foursome got stuck behind a slow-playing group of ladies at nearby Chevy Chase Club so they decided to establish a golf club that wouldn’t allow women on the premises, never mind play the game! There are a few other boys-only clubs around the country but they’re very much a dying breed in these more enlightened times.
In its pomp, between the 1940s and 1960s, the club reeked of political power, with honorary membership extended to US Presidents and high-ranking figures on Capitol Hill. It’s been described as “a timeless place [where] the past is omnipresent [and] the attitudes and prevailing world view are of a different time” so some obviously think it still has a role to play in modern society.
Jane Vieth, the wife of a Washington lawyer whose husband is a member, was quoted as saying: "I don't know what wives would do without it. It's such a great day-care center. It's simply wonderful for them to have a place to go, even if they can't play golf any more. There are a lot of them who've gotten sort of decrepit. They go to have lunch, visit with their friends and play gin rummy."
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Alison studied history, law and divinity at Oxford and represented the university in Varsity matches. In one of these contests he famously pitched onto Woking’s 18th green from the clubhouse verandah roof.
