Bedminster, New Jersey is small and sparsely populated. This street is the closest thing the town has to a main street. Only 8,165 live in the entire township, according to the 2010 census.
Some roads are even unpaved dirt paths winding through the large houses and horse farms on either side.
Trump bought the land the club stands on in 2002, after buying it form real estate investors who purchased it in a bankruptcy sale in the 1980s. The price Trump paid was reported to be less than $35 million, and Trump finished built the course from scratch. It opened in 2004 on Fourth of July weekend.
De Loreon's Georgian-style manor house was preserved and later converted and expanded into the clubhouse. Additional amenities have been erected around the home, including tennis courts and an 82-foot-long pool.
The course has received accolades. It's actually two courses, with a total of 36 holes. In 2022, the club is slated to host the PGA Championship. "Certainly when you have courses, when you get acknowledged to have one of the majors ... having the PGA is a very, very big deal," Trump said at a press conference when the announcement was made. "So it's very important to me." The club will also host the 2017 US Women's Open later this year.
Source: ESPN
Membership initiation fees at the club can run up to $350,000, according to The New Yorker.
Source: The Star Ledger, The New Yorker
The club is a special place to Trump. His daughter Ivanka married her husband Jared Kushner on the property in 2009.
In fact, Trump loves the course so much he was even looking to be buried there and built a mausoleum with up to 10 plots near the first hole. “Wouldn’t you want to be buried here?” he asked a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. In 2015, a representative for the Trump Organization told a New Jersey newspaper he changed his mind and would like to be buried in Florida instead. The private cemetery was built anyway.
Source: The Star Ledger, The New Yorker, The Star Ledger
Much like at Mar-a-Lago, Trump has his own private villa on the grounds when he comes to the resort.
He often mingles with guests and members while staying at Bedminster, and the club often hosts events like weddings and charity benefits.
