The courses featured on our ranking of the world’s best are always challenging and often beautiful, but some of them will never be accused of being welcoming, even to the paying members. These are our picks for the most elusive tee times in the the world.

Cypress Point Club, Pebble Beach, CA (World Ranking: 2)

Bob Hope once memorably summed up Cypress Point: “One year they had a big membership drive at Cypress. They drove out 40 members.” Hope was himself a member for more than 40 years, but he didn’t recall playing there more than a half-dozen times outside of the “Crosby Clambake.” He still paid, however. At the end of every year Cypress Point divides its total operating costs evenly among the members, even if they never set foot on the property that year.

Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, GA. (World Ranking: 9)

The 300 or so members of Augusta National include generations of Southern society folks and corporate titans who are discouraged from using the club too often. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was kept out for years for the sin of stating publicly that he wanted in. He made it, eventually.

Ellerston, Australia (World Ranking: T-77)

When it opened, in 2001, this Greg Norman-Bob Harrison design had a membership of one: the Australian media mogul Kerry Packer, who had the course built on his private estate in a remote swatch of New South Wales. Packer died in 2005, and his will did not direct the club to turn into muni. Access requires an invite from a member of the Packer inner circle. Norman was one of Packer’s buddies. So if you’ve got the Shark on speed dial, you might try him.