Eagle Point Golf Club is a strictly invitation-only, golf-only private club in Wilmington, NC, designed by Tom Fazio on 245 acres near the Intracoastal Waterway — ranked among the top courses in the country and best known for hosting the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship.
Read on for a full breakdown of the course, membership, facilities, and everything else that makes Eagle Point one of the most talked-about private clubs in the Southeast.
The History and Vision Behind Eagle Point Golf Club
Eagle Point's story starts around 1997–1998, when four friends decided to build something different.
Billy Armfield (a Greensboro textile executive), Bobby Long (an insurance businessman), John Ellison (a Greensboro manufacturer), and John Mack (former CEO of Morgan Stanley) walked a wooded, 245-acre parcel about eight miles north of downtown Wilmington with Tom Fazio — in the rain, in 45-degree temperatures, with downed trees everywhere.
While the four founders endured the miserable conditions, Fazio was already pointing out where the first tee, 18th green, and clubhouse would go.
The original plan included a real estate component, but the property simply couldn't accommodate both housing and a full course. That constraint turned out to be a defining moment — the group pivoted to a pure golf club with no residential development attached, which set the tone for everything that followed.
Bobby Long's background played a big role in shaping the club's identity. As green chairman at Seminole Golf Club and a member at Augusta National, he had a clear reference point for what a world-class, golf-first private club should look and feel like. That influence shows.
The club opened in May 2000 and took its name from the nearby Bald Eagle Lane residential development — borrowed informally, as local architect Henry Johnston (who designed the clubhouse) recalled with amusement when Armfield called to tell him, “we have stolen your development name.”
Armfield led the club for roughly its first decade in what members described as a “benevolent dictator” style — a governance approach reminiscent of Pine Valley and Seminole. He passed away in July 2016 at age 81, just months before the club's biggest public moment, the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship.
Bobby Long succeeded him as president. Billy Anderson, who has been with Eagle Point since before it opened, continues to serve as Director of Golf and General Manager.
The Course — Design, Layout, and What Makes It Special
Tom Fazio designed the championship course alongside Beau Welling, moving roughly two million cubic yards of earth to create dramatic elevation changes across what is otherwise flat coastal terrain. The result is a par-72 layout that plays very differently from what you'd expect this close to the Carolina coast — rolling, pine-lined, and demanding.
The 18th tee sits at 52 feet, the highest point in all of New Hanover County. Six man-made lakes, several streams, and massive live oaks shape the strategy throughout, and the Atlantic Ocean sits less than a mile to the east, meaning wind is always part of the equation.
Tee Options
The course offers seven sets of tees, giving it genuine range for different skill levels:
- Black: 7,479 yards | Rating 76.1 | Slope 144
- Green: 6,835 yards | Rating 73.2 | Slope 138
- Blue: 6,406 yards | Rating 71.2 | Slope 136
- EP: 6,005 yards | Rating 69.5 | Slope 129
- Yellow: 5,708 yards
- Red: 5,249 yards
The Routing
The course shifts character as you move through it. The opening eight holes carry a North Carolina Sandhills feel — firm, sandy, pine-framed. Then holes 9 through 11 open up into something closer to South Carolina Lowcountry, with marsh, saltwater bay, and Intracoastal Waterway views stretching toward Figure Eight Island.
Holes Worth Knowing
Three holes stand out as particularly talked-about:
- No. 2 (par 3): Repeatedly cited by Golf Digest panelists as one of their favorite par 3s in the country.
- No. 6 (par 5, 549 yards): The No. 1 handicap hole. A creek runs along the left side, cuts across the fairway, then wraps right toward a pond behind the green — trouble from tee to green.
- No. 10 (par 3, 186 yards): Played from an elevated tee over two Mackenzie-style bunkers, with marsh, the Intracoastal Waterway, and a Wilmington bridge as the backdrop.
The finishing stretch from 14 through 18 has drawn some of the loudest praise — three par 4s measuring at least 430 yards each, a 221-yard par 3, and the 582-yard par-5 18th where Brian Harman holed the putt that won the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship.
Turf and Conditions
In 2016, the greens were converted from A-4 bentgrass to Champion G12 Bermudagrass — a significant upgrade for year-round playability in the coastal Carolina climate. Fairways and tees feature Tifsport Bermuda, and the sandy soil drains quickly after rain. Conditions are consistently described as immaculate.
Beyond the Championship Course
Eagle Point's 9-hole par-3 course — also Fazio-designed — totals 1,446 yards at par 27. No hole measures under 100 yards, and one reaches 220, making it a genuine test rather than a warm-up loop. Practice facilities include a 15-acre driving range equipped with Accelerized Golf technology and a short-game area designed by architect Andrew Green.
Membership — How It Works and Who Belongs
Eagle Point is invitation-only, full stop. There is no application form, no waitlist you can join online, and the club's website — eaglepoint.golf — functions purely as a members-only login portal. The only way in is through a sponsorship from an existing member.
The club keeps its roster deliberately small, with somewhere between 400 and 450 members. What makes that number interesting is where most of them live — the majority are based more than 50 miles from Wilmington. This isn't a local country club.
It's a destination club, drawing members from Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond, New York, and beyond. That geographic spread is a direct reflection of the golf-first model: people join to make the trip, not to pop in after work.
What It Costs
The club doesn't publish membership fees, and any figures floating around online are unverified third-party estimates. With that caveat clearly stated, those estimates suggest:
- Initiation fee: $50,000 – $100,000
- Monthly dues: $800 – $1,200
For confirmed information, the club's direct line is (910) 686-4653.
Notable Members
The membership includes some recognizable names from the golf world:
- Webb Simpson — 2012 U.S. Open champion, who has said he's played roughly 150 rounds at Eagle Point
- Carl Pettersson — PGA Tour winner
- Johnny Harris — President of Quail Hollow Club and Augusta National member, whose relationship with the club was instrumental in bringing the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship to Wilmington
The Club Experience — Facilities, Caddies, and Accommodations
The 22,000-square-foot clubhouse was designed by Wilmington architects Henry and Ian Johnston in a Cape Cod style — cedar shake siding and roofing, exposed glue-laminated trusses, tongue-and-groove wood ceilings, and grand fireplaces with hand-selected heart pine mantles in both the dining room and the men's locker room.
Covered porches look out over the course. Billy Armfield's directive to the architects was straightforward: “I want it to feel like your favorite sweater… someplace where you feel at home.” The building delivers on that.
Inside, you'll find a full-service dining room and a pro shop that members and visitors describe as modest but refined — somewhere between a well-stocked golf shop and a haberdashery.
The Caddie Program
Eagle Point runs a full daily caddie program — the only one of its kind at a private club in southeastern North Carolina. Caddies wear bleached white coveralls, and the course was designed from the start to be walked. No one is pushing you into a cart.
There are also no tee times, for members or anyone else. You show up and play. That policy, combined with the small membership, keeps annual rounds in the 11,000–13,000 range — which goes a long way toward explaining why the conditions are as good as they are.
What You Won't Find
True to its golf-only identity, Eagle Point has no swimming pool, no tennis courts, and no fitness center. That's intentional.
Guest Accommodations
Out-of-town members and their guests can stay in one of two cottages situated along the 9th fairway. Each cottage has four master suites and sleeps up to eight people. They're well-stocked — Scotch, cigars, pool tables, flat-screen TVs over fireplaces, and decks with gas grills and rocking chairs.
The club also arranges transportation to and from Wilmington International Airport, about 15 miles away, so the experience is seamless from the moment you land.
The 2017 Wells Fargo Championship and Eagle Point's National Moment
In 2017, the Wells Fargo Championship needed a new home for one year. Its regular venue, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, was preparing to host the PGA Championship that summer and couldn't accommodate both events.
Eagle Point got the call — and it marked the first PGA Tour event in Wilmington in 45 years, since the Azalea Open left Cape Fear Country Club in 1972.
The connection was personal. Johnny Harris, president of Quail Hollow and an Eagle Point member, was the link between the two clubs. Bobby Long worked to keep the tournament in North Carolina, and the result was a $7.5 million purse event landing at a club most of the golf world had never heard of.
Preparing the Course
To get Eagle Point ready for the PGA Tour, the club brought in Marsh Benson — who had just retired after 27 years as senior director of golf course and grounds at Augusta National — to consult on course preparation and aesthetic enhancements. The players noticed. PGA Tour pro Steven Bowditch dubbed it “Augusta Point,” and the comparison came up repeatedly throughout the week.
The Tournament
The event ran May 4–7, with the course set up at 7,288 yards and a scoring average of 72.7 — nearly a full stroke over par. Here's how it played out:
- Round 1 leader: Patrick Reed at 8-under
- Winner: Brian Harman, 10-under 278
- Winning moment: A 28-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th hole
- Margin of victory: One stroke over Dustin Johnson (then world No. 1) and Pat Perez
Webb Simpson, who had logged more than 150 rounds at Eagle Point as a member, also competed in the field that week.
The tournament drew roughly 25,000 spectators on-site and was broadcast to 220 countries — a significant spotlight for a club that otherwise operates in deliberate quiet. Eagle Point handled it, returned the compliments from the Tour, and went straight back to being exactly what it was before.
Rankings, Reputation, and How to Visit
Eagle Point has held a place in Golf Digest's national rankings for over two decades. Its peak came in 2011–2012, when it reached No. 48 on the 100 Greatest Courses in America. The current ranking sits at No. 119 on Golf Digest's Second 100 Greatest (2025–26 cycle) and No. 6 in North Carolina — still firmly elite, still well ahead of most courses in the state.
Among those who have actually played it, the scores are about as clean as they come:
- 18Birdies: 5.0 / 5.0 (35 reviews)
- GolfPass: 5.0 / 5.0
- Golf Digest panelists: 4.4 / 5.0 (13 expert reviews)
The Augusta National comparison comes up constantly and from credible sources. Webb Simpson — a member who has played Eagle Point more than 150 times — has described it as having a genuine touch of Augusta, pointing to the color and conditioning. The club's own assistant pro went further, calling it the finest place to play golf outside of Augusta National.
The most measured critique on record comes from Golf Digest's Ron Whitten, who, while impressed overall, noted the course has what he called “fully interchangeable parts” — a pattern he finds across Fazio designs — and drew comparisons to Wild Dunes, Galloway National, and Quail Hollow. It's a fair point worth knowing, even if the consensus lands firmly on the other side.
Events at Eagle Point
The club hosts several notable competitions each year, including:
- The Williams Cup — an NCAA college golf tournament hosted in partnership with the University of North Carolina, honoring former basketball coach Roy Williams. The 2025 edition drew 13 Division I teams, seven of them ranked in the national top 25.
- The Eagle Point Amateur Invitational — open to top mid-amateur and senior amateur golfers
- U.S. Amateur Final Qualifying (2025) — one of just 19 sites selected nationwide
Getting There and Access
Eagle Point is located at 8131 Bald Eagle Lane, Wilmington, NC 28411, in the Porters Neck area on the city's northeast side. It's about 15–20 minutes from downtown Wilmington via Market Street and roughly 15 miles from Wilmington International Airport. The entrance is an unassuming gate on Bald Eagle Lane — easy to miss if you don't know what you're looking for.
Public access doesn't exist here. There are no guest tee times, no online booking, and no walk-in options. Some golf aggregator sites have incorrectly listed the club as open to the public — it isn't. The only way to play is through a member invitation. If you're pursuing membership, the club's direct line is (910) 686-4653.
Conclusion
Eagle Point Golf Club is a rare thing — a private club that has stayed completely true to its original vision for 25 years, with no amenity creep, no tee times, and no compromises on the golf experience.
The Tom Fazio design, the full caddie program, the small membership, and the deliberately low round count all point to a club that prioritizes quality over everything else.
Whether you're a golfer hoping to one day get an invitation or simply someone who appreciates what a truly golf-focused club looks like, Eagle Point sets a standard that very few private clubs in America can match.
