If You Drain It, They Will Come

Five properties aiming to add world-class golf to the already saturated Sunshine State

Apogee Club

This 1,220-acre property, which has set the initiation fee at $500,000, plans to have 1,000 members, according to Pascucci. It’s a “pure golf” club, meaning there are no homes to build a course around. Bona fides: The West course, the property’s first, is by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner; Tom Fazio II and Mike Davis (formerly of the United States Golf Association) are designing the second, and Kyle Phillips, who did Kingsbarn in St. Andrews, Scotland, will build the third. Amenities of note: There will be two Hart Howerton-designed clubhouses, as well as a 360-degree 50-acre practice range, with another eight acres dedicated to the short game and 10 air-conditioned hitting bays. The club will also have padel and pickleball and a 160-acre lake stocked with fish. Completion date: The West course opened in December; the second is due in December 2025; and the third and final course is estimated for December 2026.

The Ranch

Bakst was skeptical about a site in Florida until he visited. With coaxing from his wife, Suzanne, he’s embarked on building the Ranch, which will have two courses and 175 homes located discreetly away from the links. They’re clustered on 250 acres of the roughly 6.1-squaremile property. Bona fides: Bakst made his name with Friar’s Head, a fixture on Golf Digest’s list of the 100 best US courses since it opened in 2002. The Ranch’s two courses will be built by Whitman, Axland & Cutten. Amenities of note: Practice facilities will sit on 175 acres between the two courses and will include a 12-hole par-3 course and a full-length 10-hole practice course. Completion date: The first course is scheduled to open in fall 2025; the second course, in fall 2026.

Atlantic Fields

On 1,500 acres next door to the Hobe Sound Polo Club and Michael Jordan’s Grove XXIII course, Discovery Land Co. is building more than 300 homes on the site of a former tree farm. The developer, which was behind Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas and a new $1 billion private community in Dubai, intends to reconstruct a nearby marsh and preserve much of the original wetlands and farm. Bona fides: An 18-hole course will be designed by Tom Fazio II, who builds all of DLC’S courses, including the one at Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’alene, Idaho. Also Fazio’s: the course at nearby PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens and the Tranquilo at the Four Seasons in Orlando. Amenities of note: Atlantic Fields will include an equestrian center with a stable, riding rings, a lounge and viewing area; an organic farm; and a clubhouse whose full health center includes hot tubs, cold plunge pools, a sauna and steam rooms. Completion date: A short course opened in December, with an 18-hole course estimated to be ready this fall.

Sandglass Golf Club

Shumway says he’s “chosen the simplest lane” by whittling his club down to the essentials. His goal is to have 150 members: “We want a world-class golf course, with no housing, that’s pure golf.” That said, there may be some on-site cottages for lodging. Bona fides: Like his mentor, the late billionaire developer Julian Robertson Jr., Shumway has hired Doak to build his course. Sandglass will require moving a lot of dirt, a rarity for the designer and his team, who prefer to use naturally occurring hills to create the undulations you see in his work at Colorado’s Ballyneal and Ireland’s St. Patrick’s. Amenity of note: The club will shut down in the summer, allowing the turf to repair for three months instead of being punished by foot traffic in the heat. Doak says if a club isn’t closed for an extended period each year, there’s no way to make major repairs to the turf. “After three years the ball doesn’t bounce and roll at all anymore,” which is essential to links-style play. Completion date: Opens in December.

Mcarthur Golf Club

Unlike most brand-new developments in Martin County, Mcarthur is a relative senior citizen at 22 years old. General manager Kevin Murphy says there are no plans to expand its membership, despite the increased demand for golf in the area.

Bona fides: The club already has had a Tom Fazio-designed course that architect Bill Coore says is “just impeccably maintained. It’s very beautiful.” The club’s new course, the Back Yard, by Coore & Crenshaw, is unlike many of the architect duo’s more famous courses, which sit in stunning natural settings. But the challenges intrigued them, and the result is a course that weaves through the wetlands and uses the existing trees and water features to frame the holes.

Completion date: Opened in November.