Burlingame Country Club
Hillsborough, San Mateo County, California · San Francisco / Peninsula golf market
- Access
- non equity
- Holes
- 18
- Architect(s)
- Willie Watson, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Douglas Nickels, Todd Eckenrode
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Burlingame Country Club occupies an unusual place in American golf and social history: club historians recognize it as the first country club established west of the Mississippi River, founded in 1893 by San Francisco financier Francis G. Newlands (son-in-law of Nevada Senator and former Bank of California president William Sharon) as part of his effort to convert his family's dairy-farm land holdings on the Peninsula into an exclusive residential subdivision for wealthy San Franciscans. The club -- and the Burlingame train depot built the following year to serve it -- is the direct historical origin of the Town of Hillsborough, where the club has always physically stood despite carrying the neighboring city of Burlingame's name. Early members included some of the Peninsula's most prominent founding families, among them William H. Howard, Walter Hobart, the Tobin family, and Frank and Harriet Pullman Carolan, whose nearby Crossways Farm made the area a nationally known destination for polo alongside golf; that founding-family fabric still defines Hillsborough's identity today as one of the Bay Area's most established and expensive residential towns. More than 130 years on, the club remains a private, member-owned institution: a villa-style, century-old clubhouse with overnight guest suites anchors an 18-hole, par-70 course (roughly 6,500 yards from the tips, course rating 70.9/slope 127) that has been reworked across generations by Willie Watson, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Douglas Nickels (1999), and a Todd Eckenrode restoration around 2013, alongside eight tennis courts, pickleball, and a swimming pool.
Golf & Course
The 18-hole course has been shaped by a succession of nationally known architects across more than a century: Willie Watson laid out the design in the early 1920s (the golf course itself first opened for play in 1920), Robert Trent Jones Sr. later reworked the layout, Douglas Nickels made further changes in 1999, and Todd Eckenrode of Origins Golf Design carried out a restoration around 2013. The result plays to a par of 70 across roughly 6,500 yards from the longest tees (course rating 70.9, slope 127) -- a shorter, more strategically demanding Golden Age-era routing rather than a modern championship-length layout, with a dramatic par-3 sixth hole and a 13th hole noted for its sweeping landscape views.
Membership & Access
Does buying a home here include club membership?
Burlingame Country Club is a private, member-owned club; homeownership in Hillsborough or the surrounding Peninsula confers no automatic playing rights or membership access -- membership is by application/sponsorship, consistent with the club's non-equity private structure. Two independent third-party aggregators (privateIQ, Wojdylo Golf) report a $40,000 initiation fee and roughly $9,575 in annual dues for a Full Golf Membership, and a $30,000 initiation fee with roughly $4,788 in annual dues for an Associate Golf Membership (members under 55); these figures were not confirmed directly against the club's own rate sheet this session (burlingamecc.org could not be fetched -- EGRESS_BLOCKED) and should be treated as informed estimates pending direct confirmation with the club.
Location & Surrounding Area
The clubhouse and course sit within the Town of Hillsborough, not the City of Burlingame -- a naming mismatch that traces directly to the club's own founding history (Newlands developed both the club and the surrounding towns from the same land holdings) and is one of the most common identity traps researchers and buyers encounter in this market. A separate, unrelated club also named 'Burlingame Country Club' operates in Sapphire, North Carolina (Cashiers area); the two share no corporate, ownership, or historical connection.
Costs & Fees
Figures below are labeled Current only when the source itself frames them as presently accurate. Everything else is labeled Historical — a source checked today does not make an old fee a current one.
Initiation (range low)
Historical — as of 2026-09-22$30,000
Associate Golf Membership initiation fee, available to members under 55; corroborated independently by a second aggregator (Wojdylo Golf, https://wojdylogolf.com/burlingame-country-club/). Neither source is the club's own rate sheet (burlingamecc.org returned EGRESS_BLOCKED this session) -- treat as a third-party estimate pending direct confirmation.
Initiation (range high)
Historical — as of 2026-09-22$40,000
Full Golf Membership initiation fee; corroborated independently by Wojdylo Golf. Same aggregator-sourcing caveat as initiation_fee_min.
Annual dues
Historical — as of 2026-09-22$9,575
Full Golf Membership annual dues (~$797.92/month); the Associate Golf Membership tier (under 55) is reported at roughly $4,788/year. Aggregator-sourced (privateIQ, corroborated by Wojdylo Golf), not confirmed against an official club rate sheet.
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What Buyers Should Verify
- Confirm current initiation fee/dues directly with the club (burlingamecc.org) -- this session's figures are aggregator-sourced (privateIQ, Wojdylo Golf) and not confirmed against an official rate sheet; the club's own site returned EGRESS_BLOCKED and could not be fetched.
- Confirm gated status directly with the club -- not found at a primary source this session.
- Keep this record clearly disambiguated from the distinct Burlingame Country Club in Sapphire, NC if that entity is later added to the platform.
Notable
- Founded in 1893; recognized by club historians as the first/oldest continuously operating country club west of the Mississippi River, founded by Francis G. Newlands.
- The club's founding is the direct historical origin of the Town of Hillsborough as a residential community -- the club predates the town's formal incorporation.
- 18-hole, par-70 course (~6,500 yards, 70.9/127 rating/slope) shaped across generations by Willie Watson (early 1920s), Robert Trent Jones Sr., Douglas Nickels (1999), and a Todd Eckenrode restoration (c. 2013).
- Early members included the Howard, Hobart, Tobin, and Carolan families, whose nearby Crossways Farm made the area a nationally known polo destination alongside golf.
- Clubhouse offers overnight guest suites; club amenities include eight tennis courts, pickleball, and a swimming pool alongside the golf course.
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US Golf Living provides independent real-estate research and can connect consumers with real-estate professionals. Golf membership, availability, fees and approval are determined independently by the applicable club.