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Golf has always had somewhat of an "upper crust of society" feel to it, but sometimes that feeling goes even farther than one could even imagine. Case in point: Liberty National Golf Club. Liberty National, just across the Hudson River in Jersey City, just opened last month and has some of the most ridiculous member benefits that Gothamist has ever heard of. How ritzy, you ask? When construction is finished, the waiters will deliver anything to you at any time, with a silver platter. The Post quotes the club's managing director Aurelian Anghelusiu, "If our members want a foie gras sandwich and glass of Cristal on the course at 10 a.m., we'll do it." Nothing like the fresh taste of duck liver bright and early in the morning. Other benefits include a complementary yacht-ride from Manhattan, massages at the driving range, a view of Manhattan, and caddies with GPS systems to help pinpoint the distance from your errant ball to the holes. Oh, and if that boat ride takes too long, you can jump on the club helicopter.
Of course, all this comes at a cost. The initiation fee is a hefty $400,000 and the clubhouse won't be finished until 2008! The club already has 50 members and has a capacity of 325 for the coming years, but you better start saving your pennies now. The director of golf development said that the initiation fees to the $130 million facility could reach $1 million by 2010. Current members include Rudy Giuliani, Robert Kraft (owner of the New England Patriots) and Ken Langone (Home Depot co-founder).
And because nothing comes without a catch - Liberty National is built upon a former toxic landfill. Freshly trimmed greens and toxic fumes. Fun times.
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Ugh! Why do some people insist on thinking of foie gras as some kind of treat??
Read all about why many countries and US states are banning its production.
Foie Gras is awesome. I'm drooling from just checking out that website. Thanks for the link Interlard! Yumm the plump overstuffed flavorful liver. I can taste it now!
You know, many obese Texans would consider what the ducks are going through as 'heaven on earth'.
The GPS feature (actually located in your golf cart) telling one the distance from one's ball to the hole sounds extravagant, but is actually a fairly low-tech software and hardware feature that takes a lot of guesswork out of the game--especially if one is an infrequent golfer and has no sense of judging distances. It also helps golf course managers rein in errant cart drivers when they're going where they're not supposed to. And in the odd case where a golfer needs medical assistance, it allows assistance to locate exactly where a stricken player lies--in the rough so to speak.
Is this the same golf course where they used material from dredging the harbors to cover the landfill? Wasn't it originally supposed to be a public course?
Post #4 - you are thinking of another newcomer to the area, Bayonne Golf Club. It has a more interesting layout and is a mere $150K iniation fee (which is going to get jacked next year, so blow that bonus now). Both courses were built on top of toxic wasted dumps now some 50 feet below the fairways, and at $100MM each, no way anyone who has stopped believing in Santa Claus thought that kind of investment would be recouped through daily fees.
Good read here on the two projects:
http://www.golfdigest.com/courses/index.ssf?/courses/gd200512architecture.html
Toxic fumes? Please. Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited to play here by a friend, who joined up this year. It's everything they say it is, and more. We took a chopper to the course where the caddies -- one per golfer -- meet you at the helipad. Practice balls are Titleist Pro V1s and, if you're fewer than a foursome, a golf partner will join as the fourth. Oh, and he's a tour professional. An easy 10 on a scale of 1-10.