How we play

Fit comes first.

Alola is built on one thing: the right people. We look for people who play honestly, lose cheerfully, give their time generously and never show off, and who make a table better by sitting at it. Handicap, title and net worth count for nothing here.

An introduction is not a promise. Being put forward by a member, however senior, does not guarantee membership. Every candidate plays a round and shares a meal with us, the founding committee decides, and its decision is final. We never give reasons, and a no is not a judgement on anyone as a person or a golfer. It only means the fit was not right for this small group at this time.

We are here for the story.

Nobody remembers what they shot three years ago. Everybody remembers the night in Danang. We plan for the story first and the golf a very close second.

Your number is your word.

Every member plays off an Alola number. The committee or a club professional sets the first one, and the friends who countersign your card keep it honest. Not a great golfer? Wonderful, most of us are not. Just be exactly as good as you say you are.

Nobody asks for strokes.

The sheet says who gets what, and on which holes. No negotiating on the first tee. Haggling for shots is beneath you, and it is beneath us.

Win loud. Lose louder.

Enjoy the good shots out loud, and laugh hardest at the bad ones, especially your own. Take the ribbing well, then come back for revenge.

The best, or not at all.

Private courses. Five-star stays. Tables worth the flight. We never ask what the cheapest way is. We ask what the best way is, and do that.

Look after each other.

Play fast. Pick up the phone. Pour for the table before yourself. Make the newest member feel like they have been here for years.

What happens at Alola stays at Alola.

The Clubhouse, our photographs, our stories and our member list are for members. Laugh at each other in here. Never out there.

You are who you bring.

Members bring members. You have three introductions, for life (the chair and the committee are not limited). Spend them on people you would happily share a villa with.

The house rules

The manners of the old clubs, kept because they work. Customs, not small print: the small print is below.

Nobody talks about money.

Not what anything was, not what anyone has, not what a round or a room or a bottle came to. Everyone here can afford the evening; that is the last time it needs saying. Pick up the bill when it is your turn and let the table forget it.

Phones face down.

At the table, on the tee and in the bar, the phone is on silent and out of sight. Nothing said in the room is repeated outside it, and nobody is photographed without a nod first. The pictures we do take stay in the Clubhouse.

Chatham House at the table.

In the circles and at dinner, use what you hear; never say who said it. That is how members talk freely about health, family, business and the rest of life, and why they do.

No pitching. Ever.

Nobody sells, raises, recruits or canvasses another member, or a member's guest, or the staff. Business happens between members all the time; it starts because two people liked each other, never because one of them asked.

Your guest is you.

Bring anyone you would happily share a villa with. Stay with them, introduce them round, settle for them, and see them out. How they behave is how you behaved.

Arrive early. Play fast.

On time is late for a tee. Ready golf, no practice swings over a putt, cards in before the first drink. A slow group is the only thing the club is impatient about.

Dress as if you were invited.

Because you were. The host club's code is ours for the day, and where there is none: collars, tailoring, no logos shouting, nothing you would not wear to lunch with your host's mother.

Be a good guest.

At another club we are guests, and we behave like the best ones they have had: we know their rules before we arrive, we thank the caddie by name, we leave the locker room as we found it, and we write to the secretary afterwards.

The newest member sits in the middle.

Nobody is left at the end of the table. The oldest members carry the conversation to the newest, not the other way round. Seniority here is measured in generosity.

Leave quietly, come back loudly.

A member who steps away does so with a note to the chair and nothing said in the room. A member who returns is met at the first tee.

The rules, in plain words

Joining

Membership is by introduction only. Nobody can apply unless a member has put their own name to them first.
Each member has three introductions for life. One comes back only if it is withdrawn before the candidate has answered. The chair and the committee are not limited, so that the club can be built.
The path: a member introduces you · you complete your own application · a member of the committee who did not introduce you seconds you · your name is posted to all members for five days, and any member may write privately to the committee · you play a round of golf with someone from the committee who did not introduce you · you have a meal with a second member · the committee votes · the chair welcomes you.
An introduction is not a promise. Being put forward by a member, however senior, does not guarantee membership. Every candidate plays a round and shares a meal with us, the founding committee decides, and its decision is final. We never give reasons, and a no is not a judgement on anyone as a person or a golfer. It only means the fit was not right for this small group at this time.
A candidate who is not admitted may be introduced again after three years.
No member gains status, perks, money or anything else by introducing people. Standing in the club is earned by playing.
While the club has fewer than five members, or the committee fewer than three, there is nobody to second a candidate or to post their name to, so those two steps, the rule that the round and the meal need two different members, and the rule that an introducer does not vote on their own candidate, wait until then. An invitation nobody opens lapses after seven days, and the introduction comes back.

What Alola is

Alola is a private members' club owned and run by its founder's company. Membership is a personal, non-transferable right to take part. It is not a share, an investment or an ownership interest, and it has no resale value.
The founding committee decides who joins, within the limits written under The committee below. Fees, rules and the running of the club stay with the company.
Alola plans and hosts. When you travel, you book and pay hotels, courses and operators directly.

On the course

Your Alola number is worked out only from scorecards countersigned by members who played with you. It is Alola's own number, not an official handicap index.

How we treat each other

Do not sell to other members, raise money from them or pitch them, unless they ask. That includes business, charity and politics.
The member list, the Clubhouse and circles, photographs and anything said among members are confidential.
You are responsible for your guests.
A concern about a member or a candidate goes quietly to the committee, never to the Clubhouse. The person concerned does not see it and takes no part in deciding it.
The chair, on the committee's advice, may suspend or end a membership that damages the club or its culture.

Every year

From the first Sunday of each year, every member signs How we play again before using the portal.
Members belong to a city chapter. A new chapter may open when twelve members live in a city.
The committee places each member in a Flight: the same members, playing together once a month through a season. A season is six months, November to April and May to October. You may ask to move once a season.
What a member tells the Flight is told to the Flight alone. It is not repeated to another member, to a partner at home, or to the committee. The one exception is a concern for someone's safety. A member who breaks this leaves the Flight.

Your details

We hold your name, email, mobile, scorecards and what you post, to run the club: arranging games and journeys, keeping your number, and running the Clubhouse and circles. The full detail is at alola.com/legal/privacy.
A candidate's details are used only to arrange their round and their meal with us and to consider their membership, and are seen only by the committee.
We do not sell personal data. You may ask to see, correct or delete yours at any time.

Why Alola →For clubs and hotels →

Questions about your details or these rules: m@alola.com