Seven years ago, Noah DiPasquale was running a management consulting firm. He had just started golfing a few years prior, and quickly fell in love with the sport. “I didn’t really know much about how golf life worked, and so to learn how to golf, I joined a private club. I became enamored with not only the game, but just playing amazing places.”
In classic consultant fashion, he realized there was a gap in the golf landscape: Why wasn’t there an organization that connected passionate golfers with the best courses? He decided to start one. Enter Epic Golf Club, a private golf society. “We have partnerships with roughly 200 private golf courses across America,” DiPasquale says. “We’re almost an executive matchmaking service for people who love golf.”
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Epic’s focus is on securing its members access to American golf courses.
When it launched in 2019, Epic had just 20 members; now, the organization has over 1,000, from 43 states and 13 countries. To join Epic, you have to already be a member of a private golf club, and in good standing at that club. There are nearly 2,000 applications for month, and applicants go through a lengthy interview process and strict vetting. “You could belong to the most exclusive club in the world and have all the money in the world, you can’t just join,” DiPasquale says. “We want to make sure that the people that we are onboarding match our core values. And then we want to make sure that the people that want to join are getting in for the right reasons or will fully understand what’s going to be expected of them.” Right now, they’re accepting just around 20 new members monthly.
While the membership list is secret—and even members can’t access a directory, in an effort to focus on organic connections and community-building—DiPasquale does share that Epic Golf Club’s average member “is 51 years old, makes over a million dollars a year in annual household income, belongs to two or more private clubs and travels for golf between three and five times a year.” The membership is almost all professionals, including business owners, VPs, doctors, and attorneys, with some retirees as well. “The commonality,” DiPasquale says, is they are all “people that enjoy experiencing new adventures, meeting new people, and that have really defined an outlet for what they want out of life.” He adds, “We’re looking for people that are good people. We have a very philanthropic core to what we do, and we’re looking for people that want to give back to communities.” In the past two years, the club’s Epic Foundation has raised over $350,000 for local charities, in addition to sponsoring scholarships for junior golfers around the country.
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Rypien, who played for the Washington Commanders and the Minnesota Vikings, is an avid golfer. He’s pictured here in 1999.
Additionally, the club’s current focus is also on American golfers, DiPasquale says. “We are very careful about who we allow in from outside of the country. A lot of [international golfers] are just looking for kind of a cheat code to go play some of the great golf courses here. And that’s really not what we’re about.”
There are a few other private gold societies with a similar approach to private golf like Epic. Thousand Greens is a network for golfers who are members of private clubs, and apps like Golf Lync or Tee Up match golfers up with playing partners. There’s even Redan Club, a members-only golf brand founded by Steve Buscemi’s cousin Jon Buscemi, a fashion designer.
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Scottie Scheffler takes a shot during a practice round ahead of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.
DiPasquale declined to share which golf courses Epic membership provides access too, citing non-disclosure agreements, but he says, “if you look at the places that U.S. Opens are held, we’re at many of those.” To play at a course, members submit a request to Epic’s five-person concierge team, which works on securing availability in the requested time windows. While a first choice course isn’t always available, DiPasquale says they have a high fulfillment rate for requests.
In addition, Epic hosts trips every year for its members, handling lodging, food, transportation, caddies, and everything you need on a golf outing. “There’s a lot of cheaper ways to do things that we do, but our target demographic loves the idea of just showing up and forgetting about whatever else they have to do in the outside world,” DiPasquale says, “and Epic takes care of everything for them with a white glove experience.”
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Epic hosts outings each year around the country.
Looking to the future of Epic, DiPasquale says, it’s hard to predict what’s next. “We invented a category, so it’s tough. I didn’t have a true five-year plan when I started it,” he says, “but we’re able to adapt and change quickly. I’m excited about all the new experiences and continuing to one up ourselves. The biggest challenge that we have, and this is kind of tongue-in-cheek, is that we do so many cool things that it’s starting to become blasé for some of our members because they’re getting to play bucket list golf courses. That’s our our challenge: We have to continue creating unique experiences, so our members are constantly wowed.”
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
