The beautiful Scotland Run Golf Club in Williamstown NJ is converting to a Private membership course. The popular Highlander Pub & Grill will remain open to the public, and the banquet hall is also available for public rentals.
Simply, starting with the 2025 season the only way you will be able to golf on the premium Scotland Run course is to be a member, or a guest of a member.
Celebrating their 25th anniversary, Scotland Run Golf Course opened to rave reviews in 1999 for both its innovative and challenging golf course, but also for the large and beautiful 28,000sf two-story clubhouse building.
The course was built on the former site of a sand quarry at Fries Mill Rd and Route 322. The course design took advantage of the quarry’s pits and cliffs, incorporating them into the hole designs which created a truly one-of-a-kind golf experience you can’t find elsewhere in the Philadelphia region.
The large clubhouse is situated on Fries Mill Road and features on the first floor the Highlander Pub which is a classically styled dark wood bar with full restaurant featuring several fireplaces. The pub also offers extensive outdoor seating on the patio, with views of the golf course.
Upstairs at the Clubhouse is a 250-seat ballroom with wide balconies offering perfect views of the course.
The Pub and Restaurant will remain open to the public, and the public can rent the banquet space. They will still be selling their Social Membership which gives discounts at the Highlander Pub for all of 2025!
Soon after opening, the Scotland Run Golf Club was named as one of the top 50 public courses in the country by Golf World magazine. Business Week magazine named them the number one course in the Philadelphia region, and the Philadelphia Inquirer named the 18th hole at Scotland Run the top finishing hole in the region for any area golf course… public or private!
For the conversion to private golf course access, a “kudos” to management who have been sharing details of the thought process online over the last few months.
With the final decision made to switch to a private golfing model, they’ve announced for the 2025 season they are only accepting 75 new members, of which the 1st 50 effectively will pay no initiation fee!
They are also planning to build an addition to the men’s locker room.
For area golfers the pressure is on whether you are interested in public or private golfing at Scotland Run as Public tee times will be going away, and the Private memberships have limited availability for new members.
I was at the Clubhouse today and met with the Management team but somehow I forgot to ask when the Public tee times officially end! I have a message in and will update
Scotland Run – Going Private
From the first day of opening, Scotland Run has offered club memberships which for the yearly fee provided additional features to members such as premium tee times as well as discounts on golf round fees and more.
And for these first 25 years the public has always been allowed to reserve a tee time (but with members getting priority). Maybe the better term is they offered “public access” to the course.
As you would expect, with such a higher-end golf course design and clubhouse, the public fees were at the higher-end of the price range.
It seems though that in offering a beautiful (and challenging) golf course design along with higher end amenities found in the clubhouse and restaurant, Scotland Run attracted MANY people willing to take on a full membership fee.
And the success of the membership program introduced an interesting problem!
Well keep in mind that only a few golfers can be on a hole at once, and you are obviously moving through the course in order (1 to 18)… so that puts a limit on how many golfers can play a round each day.
So with a now large membership base who get priority access to the premium tee times (such as early mornings and weekend), it left too many gaps of unused tee times… and missed revenue.
Literally a challenge brought on by the success of the membership program, management was very open to say “The membership has grown in quantity to the point where we cannot get enough non-member (public) rounds in to meet the revenue needed for business”!
Scotland Run then started “doing the math” and realized that by moving to a Private golf course model and adding only 75 new members they could cover all the bills, expand they clubhouse offerings and likely even more important…
… golfer “traffic” (rounds) on the course would be reduced by 30%, providing an even better golfing experience to members!
Links and Location
Scotland Run Golf & Highlander Pub2626 Fries Mill RoadWilliamstown NJ 08094
Membership Details