BROOKLINE, MA – Five-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen live on the doorstep of The Country Club in Brookline, so it’s only natural that the couple and their two sons enjoy some of the amenities the club has to offer since being admitted as members in the spring of 2017.
The Country Club is a 136-year-old homage to opulence and privilege which, according to the Boston Globe, didn’t allow its first Jewish member until the 1970s, and women as full members until 1989. After an intense two-year review process TCC members debated whether admitting the high-profile power couple would attract too much attention for the privacy-minded club founded in 1882. Some members insisted that one of the world’s most recognizable faces reapply after he stops playing for the New England Patriots.
TCC amenities include access to two golf courses, indoor and outdoor courts, a curling rink, an Olympic pool, skeet shooting, trails for cross-country skiing and a pool for ice skating.
Reliable, and anonymous sources, told New England dot Golf the couple has been spotted playing golf regularly at the club and the football player’s full name – Thomas Edward Brady – appears on the membership roster. Reportedly, Gisele Bundchen is the primary TCC member, while TB12 is listed as “spouse” in TCC application documents.
Brady and Bundchen own a mega-mansion on 5.2 acres located a few mcmansions away from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft on Heath Street, featuring 14,000 square feet of living space, five bathrooms, swimming pool, yoga studio and wine cellar assessed by the town of Brookline at $7.9 million along with a $75,000 annual tax bill.
According to U.S. Golf Association handicap index records Mr. Brady maintains a 9.2 handicap but has not been posting 18-hole scores at The Country Club, host to the 1988 U.S. Open, 1999 Ryder Cup and future site of the 2022 U.S. Open. Tom Brady is listed as an active member at Riviera Country Club and The Madison Club, part of the Southern California Golf Association.
Tom Brady Sr. is a member at The Boston Golf Club, designed in 2004 by Gil Hanse, located south of Boston in Hingham. TB 12’s dad is listed as 17 handicap with dozens of 18-hole scores posted including multiple rounds in February at Fiddlesticks Country Club in Ft. Myers, Florida. He’s also a member at The Madison Club in La Quinta, California.
The application process at TCC is very elaborate. No one “applies.” In time, there is a formal process in which any candidate is proposed by a member and a seconder, who finds 8 – 12 people to write supporting letters. Those letters are supposed to be based on personal/professional (not business) acquaintance and friendship over years. But even prior to that the candidate and spouse are required to be introduced to some members of the Admissions Committee, preferably in their age group, and the Committee then signals whether the formal process may begin.
Once the formal process begins and the proposer and seconder have done their work to corral letters (which often times takes a while to accomplish), then the candidate’s name is published for comment for a couple of months. Then, if all is in order, the Admissions Committee asks the proposer and seconder to arrange a cocktail party. The Committee then decides on whether to forward the candidate’s name to the Board of Governors, who have the ultimate decision. There is no official waiting list, but sometimes people bump up against the actuality that the club has reached a limit (1500) and have to wait a while.
Primary member, Gisele, has some friends with similar age children to theirs, and her spouse, Tom, has enjoyed the golf courses, so the power couple followed the natural process that kicked into gear so they are now active TCC members.
Any discussion in newsprint or Internet that the couple were “blackballed” is nonsense.
It’s heartwarming to see two extremely wealthy people finally get access to an exclusive club for other extremely wealthy people! And they did not receive special treatment!
The question real golfers want to know is can Brady get his handicap down to 5 – to match the number of Super Bowl rings he owns!
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