Inside one of the best golf clubs in America, Jackson's Hole's ultra-exclusive Shooting Star
Shooting Star in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has been ranked as a top golf course in the US.
The golf club requires an invitation and has a long waitlist for membership.
From the golf course to the clubhouse, here's a look inside the private mountain oasis.
Nestled beneath the Grand Tetons in one of Jackson Hole, Wyoming's most expensive neighborhoods, PGA pros tee up at one of the most celebrated golf courses in the US, ranking no. 1 in Golf Digest's best in Wyoming and earning a spot on the top 100 US courses in 2023 and 2024.
I'm talking about Shooting Star, a members-only club in Teton Village. You have to be invited to join, and a representative of Shooting Star told Business Insider in September 2024 that the club had an extensive waitlist.
It's also not cheap. Shooting Star didn't share its current membership price with Business Insider, but when the club opened in 2009, it had 189 members and a $100,000 membership fee.
On a trip to Jackson Hole, I got an exclusive tour of the club, and it felt like a millionaire's playhouse. Take a look inside.
Shooting Star is in Jackson Hole's Teton Village neighborhood.
Roughly 22 miles from the town of Jackson, Shooting Star is sandwiched between Snake River Ranch and Jackson Hole Resort.
The 1,300-acre space has a clubhouse, a golf course and shop, a pool deck, a barn, and residential lodges.
When I toured the property, I thought the clubhouse looked like a luxury ranch. The expansive building overlooked the golf course and a 25-meter lap pool.
The clubhouse opens to a grand foyer with a Western aesthetic.
I spotted realistic paintings of cattle at Snake River Ranch and an animal skull on the foyer walls.
I also noticed a range of natural textures, from the wood floors and ceiling moldings to the leather seats in front of the large stone fireplace.
Outside, the 18-hole golf course looked like a painting.
I'm no golfer, but it was instantly clear why Golf Digest ranked this a top 100 course in the US.
The 250-acre course looked dynamic, with aspen and evergreen trees dotting hills parted by ponds and streams. It was designed by Tom Fazio, who also designed Donald Trump's golf clubs in Westchester, New York, and Pine Hill, New Jersey, as well as multiple courses at the exclusive Vintage Club in Indian Wells, California, where Bill Gates purchased a home for $12.5 million in 1999.
The golf course blended in so seamlessly with its surroundings that I thought it was a naturally occurring landscape, but the land was actually reformed with a design goal of making each hole unique.
According to a Shooting Star brochure, the process included moving 2 million cubic yards of dirt, planting more than 2,500 trees, and carving out 50 acres of lakes.
For a handful of PGA pros, including the golf club's director Ben Polland, Shooting Star is more than a home course — it's a day job.
From the course, I could see the resident cabins and lodges.
According to Jackson Hole Sotheby's International Realty, most of these homes didn't hit the market. However, the most expensive available listing is a four-bedroom, four-bathroom lodge for nearly $14 million.
Next to the clubhouse, the Alpine Barn is used in ski season.
In the winter, Shooting Star becomes a skier's haven, and the Alpine Barn is the hub.
Inside, there were nearly 200 lockers. During ski season, the barn shows movies and serves complimentary food. A shuttle takes skiers to the nearby Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to hit the slopes, but there's also a track around the course's perimeter for a short run.
Back inside, the second floor of the clubhouse houses a fitness center.
The 2,400-square-foot facility had smart cardio equipment with large screens overlooking the swimming pool and barn. A handful of workout studios offered classes like yoga and pilates.
Outside, there were also tennis and pickleball courts.
The spa was on the same floor.
I stepped into one of the six treatment rooms and thought it felt serene.
Limestone and wood moldings texturized the walls. There was a fireplace, cozy seating, and two treatment beds.
Natural light poured in from the window at the back of the room. There was a gigantic stainless steel tub in front of it. I thought bathing in there with a view of the course and surrounding Tetons would be a dream.
The spa bathroom had amenities akin to a luxury hotel.
I spotted glass jars containing toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, hair ties, eye drops, and over-the-counter pain and allergy medication.
Back downstairs, there was a restaurant with indoor and outdoor dining.
The dining room had a wood-burning fire pit inside. Out on the patio, members could dine right next to the golf course.
Before I headed out, I got to check out a miniature version of the property inside the clubhouse.
The property feels vast, so seeing it all planned out on one table helped me better understand the course and development.
I left with a sense of what it might be like to be a member of such an exclusive club in an epic location.
Read the original article on Business Insider
