The Duke University Golf Club has a different feel than most of today’s college golf courses.
It’s traditional. If you didn’t know the university owned and managed it, you’d think you were at a private country club. The layout has a club-style refinement — no over-the-top landscaping or ornamentation, just neatly maintained tees, lush fairways and greens.
OK, a Duke logo is on the round, log-like tee markers and the flags. But other than that, there’s no other highly visible symbols of the university. Plus, the separately managed Washington Duke Inn, which houses the pro shop, is a classic, full-serve hotel with only subtle university references.
The 7,154-yard layout rolls over hills and streams between tall, mature trees with not a house in sight. Designed by renowned architect Robert Trent Jones in 1957, the course was tweaked in 1993 by son Rees Jones, who opened up space on a few of the holes and made the greens complexes more exacting. A little over a decade ago, the putting surfaces were converted to Champion Bermuda.
“It’s a very classic design,” said longtime course GM Ed Ibarguen, a member of the PGA of America Hall of Fame, but perhaps best known for serving as Michael Jordan’s golf instructor. “There are no houses, the tees to greens are very close to each other.”
And, as it’s been since its founding, the Duke Golf Club is open to the public. The course is located just southwest of campus, south of Cameron Boulevard, only a few minutes south of Interstate 85 off U.S. 501.
“We try to give the public an opportunity to experience a high-level country club experience,” said Ibarguen.
Duke University Golf Club 9th Hole
Though public, Duke Golf Club is relatively expensive, ranging from $90 to $115 in-season for walkers and from $125 to $150 with cart, depending on the day of the week. In addition to discounts for students, faculty and alumni, seniors can play the course for $90, cart included, from Monday through Thursday.
Rees Jones tweaks include moving some bunkers and hazards closer to greens. But he also made the club more playable by opening some formerly blind tee shots. Each of the five sets of tees — Rees eliminated his father’s trademark runway areas — offers an appropriate angle.
But getting on the right section of the greens is perhaps more important than merely reaching them in regulation. With the quick Champion surfaces, the undulating greens make positioning crucial. Saving par from off the “wrong” side of the green is extremely difficult.
“The shot values became more intense,” Ibarguen said. “They brought the hazards more into play.”
Yet, the layout remained much the same. Ibarguen often refers to a comment former Duke University athletic director Tom Butters – the course is under the control of the university’s athletic department — made while surveying the layout with Rees Jones more than 30 years ago.
“The tailor cut a good suit,” Butters said.
The rolling fairways typically lead to elevated greens guarded by deep, yawning sand-filled bunkers. Several shots require approaches over water. Balls hit off-target off sink into thick rough.
The course also offers two tee combinations, giving players six scorecard options ranging from 5,288 to 6,872 yards. From the 7,200-plus tips, it has a 75.2 rating and a 145 slope.
The practice area features separate areas for the public, private lessons and the Duke golf teams. A large practice green just outside the hotel and pro shop often includes hotel guests working on their putting.
Duke University Golf Club 18th Hole
Duke Golf Club plays is a regular host to U.S. Open qualifiers. Of the 84 players – many of them PGA Tour regulars — in the 2024 U.S. Open final qualifier at Duke, only 20 broke par.
A few of the most memorable holes include the 572-yard seventh. Going for the green in two on the mammoth par-5 requires a long cut over a hill and around trees to set up a long somewhat downhill approach over a creek fronting the green.
At No. 9, a short par-5 only 493 yards from the tips, the majestic Washington Duke Inn serves as a backdrop for a perched green sitting above gaping bunkers with a bank behind the green serving as a backboard to propel long approaches or blasts from the front bunkers down onto the putting surface.
The 12th green (pictured above) surrounded in front and on the sides by a pond, is atypical of Duke standards. Playing only 181 yards from the back tees and less 140 from three other sets of tees, the hole’s non-elevated green sits just across a pond that extends around the right side of the green with a bunker in the rear.
The course has a turn house with snacks. Post-round options include the comfortable Bull Durham Pub, the formal Fairview Dining Room, the more casual Vista Restaurant and Nineteen Grill, featuring outdoor seating overlooking the course.
Noting it’s been more than three decades since Rees Jones made tweaks, Ibarguen said changes are coming. A “major” renovation is in the planning stages that would renovate the greens complexes and add some new front tee boxes without “changing the feel” of the course.
