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Find Your Swing with Golf Discount

Faculty, staff receive discount at Duke University Golf Club

Faculty and staff can play the greens and fairways of the Duke University Golf Club with a special employee discount. Photo by Bryan Roth.
Faculty and staff can play the greens and fairways of the Duke University Golf Club with a special employee discount. Photo by Bryan Roth.
By Bryan Roth

Duke faculty and staff looking to enjoy a gentle breeze and play in the sand this summer don't need to go to the beach.

The Duke University Golf Club has announced a special employee membership rate for faculty and staff who want to sign up for an annual green fee membership. It allows for unlimited play on Duke's famed golf course, along with other perks. The yearly membership, which runs through March 31, 2014, is offered to employees for $1,980, nearly $1,000 off the regular price.

"The faculty and staff rate is a great deal and it's hard to beat at country clubs around here," said Billy Gilbert, a senior IT analyst with Duke Hospital, who Gilbert has been a member at Duke Golf Club for 25 years "It's easy to pay off the membership price in rounds played there."

The membership fee is eligible for payroll deduction, which splits payments in equal amounts from sign up through March of next year. Due to scheduled maintenance to convert grass on the course's greens from Bengrass to UltraDwarf Bermuda, the course will be closed from June 3 to Sept. 2.

In addition to unlimited rounds of golf, club members also receive:

  • 20 percent off non-sale merchandise at the club's shop.
  • $5 discount on golf car fees.
  • Discounted rates for up to three guests.
  • Invitations to seven members-only events that include golf clinics, putting contests and more.

Gilbert plays at least once a week and sometimes twice a week during the spring and summer. As someone who likes playing long courses, he said Duke's fairways offer him exactly what he wants with most holes reaching at least 400 yards from back tees. He also enjoys practicing at the club's driving range.

"I really like those 450 yard holes that are a challenge," Gilbert said. "It's especially nice during the summertime when the Bermuda grass is coming in and the fairways are looking good."

Since opening in 1957, the course has hosted NCAA and ACC championships and numerous men's and women's intercollegiate tournaments, among others. It's also been named as the best course in the Triangle by the Triangle Business Journal, a top-10 college golf course by the Golf Channel and has been highlighted several times by Travel + Leisure magazine as a top-10 college course.

The course was designed in the 1950s by Robert Trent Jones Sr., one of the world's most famous golf course architects who designed more than 500 courses around the world.

For more information about club membership or to sign up, call the Duke University Golf Club at (919) 681-2288.