Mike Trout’s N.J. Golf Oasis Nears Completion: A First Look

A rendering of the clubhouse overlooking the 18th hole at Trout National.

Trout National

Major League Baseball superstar Mike Trout is creating something virtually unheard of in today’s golf landscape: a brand new, ultra-exclusive private club in the densely populated Northeast – in his home state of New Jersey, to be precise.

With a championship course designed by Tiger Woods, a national membership of pro athletes and business titans, and casual luxury approach coupled with a “no rules” philosophy, Trout National – The Reserve is set to stand out even among the new breed of destination golf club.

Consider this, there have been more perfect games in the majors over the past 15 years than brand new private clubs in New Jersey built from the ground up.

Built on an old silica sand mine and former farm fields outside Trout’s hometown of Millville in Southern Jersey, Trout Reserve might be the Northeast’s answer to Michael Jordan’s Grove XXIII in South Florida – a relaxed, private golf oasis. One rendering of the main clubhouse even has Trout’s jersey number, 27, in Roman numerals above the front entrance.

The 18-hole championship course and 9-hole reversible short course are set to open to limited member play this fall ahead of the club’s official April 2026 grand opening.

“We call it an epic golf experience at a very casual level,” said Tyler Trout, who’s been overseeing the ambitious project for the past several years for his brother and local businessman John Ruga.

In other words, it’s likely to have quite a different vibe than many of the more traditional clubs in a state that’s loaded with them – from Pine Valley in the South (widely recognized as the nation’s No. 1 course) to old school bastions such as Baltusrol, Somerset Hills, Plainfield, and Ridgewood.

Construction on both courses was completed last October, so this year has seen the anticipation build during the grow-in process.

The championship course, a par 72 that can stretch to a meaty 7,455 yards, offers risk-reward opportunities throughout as it weaves through 280 acres of former quarries and sandy waste areas. The short course, The Bullpen, is a reversible Par 3 which will be lighted for nighttime play and has holes that play between 90 and 150 yards.

A ‘Home Base’ Destination Club

Trout National is positioned as a true destination club – providing a base for national members to stay on property, while offering relative proximity to other high-end clubs in the Philadelphia and New York markets.

Between the Philadelphia area, Northern New Jersey, Long Island and the Westchester area in New York, there are 18 private clubs in GOLF magazine’s Top 100 U.S. courses, with names like Pine Valley, Merion, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Winged Foot, Friar’s Head, Shinnecock, National Golf Links, Quaker Ridge, and many more.

“You have a lot of traditional clubs that are top tier from the Philly metro area all the way up to New York and out on Long Island — the best of the best,” said Tyler Trout. “Our hope, our goal and where I think we’re going to land, is that we’re going to be another top-tier golf club, and the club that they’re going to want to come and stay in. We can send you to the other clubs, but ultimately, they are coming back to Trout as their home base.”

The club will have 10 suites in the main clubhouse (which is still under construction), two lodges with 12 bedrooms apiece, and six 4-bedroom cottages that surround the short course.

The golf cottages are situated near the short course, the club’s 30,000-square-foot putting course (that’s also lighted), and extensive short game area.

Club Amenities

The Bullpen Par 3 course, also from TGR Design, isn’t the only baseball nod at the club. There’s an on-course comfort station called “The Dugout,” with a step-down design aesthetic inspired by the bench area at baseball fields.

In the middle of the course routing is a hangout spot named Aaron’s after Trout’s late brother-in-law, who was affectionately known to be the “life of the party.” With wrap-around terraces, fire pits, outdoor cooking, and an indoor-outdoor bar for members and their guests to relax and watch golf, Aaron’s spans the 8th to the 11th holes. Trout grew up in nearby Millville, where he met his wife, Jessica, and returns frequently to the area during the baseball offseason for hunting, golf and attending Philadelphia Eagles games while visiting friends and family.

Off the course is a full performance center with three hitting bays with TrackMan technology and Force Plate by Swing Catalyst, as well as an indoor putting lab.

The clubhouse, inspired by grand European manor houses with slate roofs and limestone walls, is set to have amenities that include a barber shop, spa, bowling alley, game vault, fitness center (designed by Trout), and a 2,500-bottle wine cellar.

There’s a helipad on property for those looking to fly in directly, but the club will also pick up members who fly into nearby airports – whether that’s Philadelphia International Airport (50 miles), Atlantic City International Airport (26 miles), or the Millville Executive Airport, which is only about six miles away.

The Garden State

Given that New Jersey is the “Garden State,” an appellation that applies particularly to the southern part of the nation’s most densely populated state, Trout National will lean into the farm-to-table concept from a dining standpoint. Holes 2, 3 and 4 were all farmland before being transformed into fairways and greens.

There’s a chef’s garden on site, and the club is not only contracting with local farmers but is in discussions to raise its own cattle just off property to source its meat.

Aside from some space for ice cream, the club intentionally didn’t include freezers in the design of its kitchens because frozen food isn’t a part of the broader food and beverage plan. Mike Trout has been intimately involved in the culinary decisions, even coming home during MLB’s All-Star break to conduct the final round of interviews for a head chef at his New Jersey home.

“The whole reason why we got behind this project, is because Mike has been very proud of calling New Jersey home,” Tyler Trout said.

Trout National Membership

Trout National will have a total of 200 national and regional members along with 27 founding members, the latter reflecting the number Trout has worn during his 15-year MLB career with the Los Angeles Angels.

As one might expect, athletes are well represented among the membership – not unlike Jordan’s exclusive club in Hobe Sound.

There are former players from all four major sports on the membership roster at Trout National. The balance is fairly even, although baseball has a slight edge over hockey for the lead, with basketball and football just behind. A number of PGA Tour players based in the Jupiter and Palm Beach area of South Florida have also joined. “This is going to be their summer club to get out of that Florida heat,” noted Tyler Trout.

Professional team owners are also a part of the membership roster, but the focus has been more about collectively finding the right group to make Trout National “a really great hang in an area that has some epic golf courses.”

“We have single-digit (handicap) employees that are at tech startups or from Twitter. We have guys that have been very successful and sold off to private equity, or managed hedge funds out of New York, or heads of top five investment banks in the U.S.,” Tyler Trout said. “It’s a wide range and our biggest thing is always just making sure that we get the right people here.”

There are no tee times at Trout National and not much in the way of rules, save for the most important one of “not allowing your fun to affect anybody else’s fun.” With the lodges and golf cottages, Trout expects large groups to be a regular occurrence, with perhaps some instances of as many as eight golfers playing together on the course.

While high-end destination private clubs have made up an outsized proportion of still-limited new golf development nationwide – with places like Old Barnwell, GrayBull, Apogee, Kinsale, Soleta, Childress Hall, and CapRock Ranch – Trout National is emerging as a true rarity. Rather than a getaway location in Florida, Texas, South Carolina or the sandhills of Nebraska, the Trout family is staying loyal to their South Jersey roots in creating their new casual luxury golf experience.

“The scale at which we are doing it in the Northeast is, nowadays, very hard to do,” acknowledged Tyler Trout. “This is a massive undertaking, but it’s really special to see it kind of come to life.”