When it comes to a world-class athlete like Mike Trout, the 34-year-old center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels who recently hit his 400th career home run, you might imagine golf is just a hobby, something to take his mind off baseball. But Trout is hoping it’s his reputation as a future Hall of Famer that propels him into his next career: South Jersey golf impresario.
In April 2026, Trout will open an exclusive and amenity-heavy golf course and club, Trout National – The Reserve, in Vineland, N.J., near his hometown of Plainville, about two hours south of New York City. The club will feature an 18-hole course designed by Tiger Woods and a reversible short course, known as “the Bullpen,” that will be illuminated and playable at night. The course recently opened to members for preview play. While Trout declines to discuss fees or membership criteria, he says the club will cap its roll at just 227 members.
Trout National is riding a wave of high-end private course development. Flying in, often privately, to play for a few days has become the norm for players who expect the food, accommodations and other extras to match the quality of the golf. Most of these destination golf courses with national memberships pop up in warm weather locations – see the boom in South Florida clubs and ballyhooed courses such as Old Barnwell and the Tree Farm in the Carolina Sandhills – but a handful of places have opened in northern latitudes in the past year, including High Pointe in Traverse City, Mich., and Lost Rail in Gretna, Neb.
Trout has played golf his whole life – his father, Jeff, first took him out when he was 12 years old. (Mike and his older brother Tyler grew up playing public and local semiprivate courses.) But like many people, he had more time on his hands when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down baseball. With nowhere to go and not much else to do, he turned to golf. “He got very good in a short amount of time,” Tyler says.
Trout had been contemplating the purchase of a golf course for some time, but his interest sharpened after playing more frequently. He and John Ruga, who owns a local construction firm, began to discuss building a course from scratch. “Obviously I loved playing golf, but I sat down with my team and said, ‘Hey, look, I think this might be a good opportunity for me to have something to do post-baseball,’ ” Trout says. “And it kind of just blew up. We decided to go crazy, make it something we really can call home and make it special for us.”
Together, Trout and Ruga went in on a former silica sand quarry. Ruga, knowing how prized sandy terrain is for building courses, immediately saw the potential of the 280-acre plot. With land secured, they turned to Woods’ firm, TGR Design, to plan the course. “There’s no one better to have designing a golf course than Tiger Woods,” Trout says. “He was the reason I started playing golf when I was a kid and one of my favorite athletes of all time.”
Although it was established in 2006, TGR has designed only about a dozen courses, most of which seem to take inspiration from Augusta National Golf Club, where Woods won five majors. Key features of most TGR courses – which you’ll find at Trout National at well – include large, undulating greens and minimal rough. There’s an emphasis on fun over punishment and taking chances.
Woods says they used the site’s unique topography to their advantage in the design. “We wanted to preserve these old features from the quarry and make them part of the character of the course,” he says. “They can be found throughout the course as playable, low, sandy waste areas, honoring both the history of the property and how beautiful the site has become.”
The grass has been growing in for more than a year now, which is a bit longer than usual for a new course. With regular-season baseball over, Trout will be able to join the first players on the course. Even Trout’s own father wasn’t allowed to step onto the green until August.
Naturally the course is only part of what’s on offer for members. The clubhouse is being built to resemble a stately manor with European-inspired details, including slate roofs, limestone walls and timber accents. Trout himself designed a 7,500-square-foot fitness center, featuring a cold plunge, a steam room, a dry sauna, a hot tub and an Ammortal Chamber. There will be a full-service spa offering manicures, pedicures and massages. There’s also a barber shop, a game vault, a bowling alley and a restaurant with a 2,500-bottle wine cellar, as well as 10 individual suites inside the clubhouse, six 4-bedroom cottages and two 12-bedroom lodges.
Working with Apple Inc. and Google, the team also had the property geofenced, so guests can use an app that pinpoints their location to request anything they need, from drinks on the course to a meal in their cottage. And when you arrive, don’t expect to see your car – or any others – during your stay. It will be whisked away to be detailed at an on-site garage.
Trout’s close family relationships have inspired many aspects of the course and club. Aaron’s, a comfort station spanning the 8th to 11th holes, features wraparound terraces, fire pits, outdoor cooking and an indoor-outdoor bar where members and guests can gather to watch golf and relax. It was named for Trout’s late brother-in-law, a dedicated golfer and an outgoing and gregarious presence, who died in 2017.
Trout has no plans to retire from baseball anytime soon, but when one builds a golf course it’s not hard to imagine what the future holds. For now, he and his brother are focused on building out their membership and creating a community. Though they won’t name names, they say they’ve already recruited professional athletes from four major sports as members.
For Trout, the club may have started as a business opportunity, but it’s already become a personal refuge. “Before I played golf and this project started, I got away by going deer hunting. Up in the stand was my time to get away and just take it all in and get in a comfort zone,” he says. “And that’s what I was thinking about with the golf course. It is really important for me, especially with everything in the world today, to be able to get away.”