Palmira Golf Club

Two buildings hold Palmira's social life, and a house here comes with one of them. That one is the Renaissance Center Club, and the golf club leaves no doubt about it, "Home ownership at Palmira includes access to the Renaissance Center Club". Its main pool is heated and lagoon-shaped, 2,800 square feet with a walk-in entry, a whirlpool spa and a waterfall. A 75-foot lap pool runs beside it, and a covered restaurant serves the pool deck, with indoor dining next door. The same center has eight lighted clay tennis courts, five for bocce and four for pickleball, plus a dog park.

The other is the Grand Clubhouse, two floors of dining rooms, card lounges and terraces looking over the course. It belongs to The Golf Club at Palmira, along with all 27 holes, and you get in through a club membership bought on its own. Around the two sit thirteen neighborhoods of coach homes, custom-built estate homes and single-family villas in a Mediterranean style, set among lakes and fairways just south of Bonita Beach Road, a short way east of the I-75 interchange in Bonita Springs.

What comes with a home at Palmira?

The Renaissance Center Club, as the club itself lists it: the pools, the fitness center, the courts, the dog park and poolside dining. Golf isn't on that list, and neither is the Grand Clubhouse.

The fitness and wellness center has certified staff and massage rooms. Its aerobics studio runs exercise classes from body sculpting to yoga, with a program of learning classes alongside. The tennis courts are hydro-grid clay with a pro shop, and tennis, bocce and pickleball each have casual play and leagues. Outside the center, wide sidewalks run through the neighborhoods, which are laid out around the lakes and the three nines.

What is the golf course like?

Egret, Ibis and Osprey are the three nines, first laid out by Gordon Lewis. Architect Kipp Schulties rebuilt all of them in 2021, swapping wooden bulkheads and bridges for stacked-rock walls. Play came back in two steps, and the club records them plainly: "18 holes opened in November of 2021 and the last 9 holes opened for play in January of 2022."

Any eighteen plays to par 72. Its five sets of tees stretch from about 4,600 yards at the front to about 7,400 at the back. Golf members book starting times a week ahead and may keep their own carts, so the round can begin at the garage door. For practice, balls fly out over water at the aqua range. There is also a chipping and pitching area with sand and waste bunkers, plus a pair of putting greens. The golf staff teach group clinics, each on a set topic, and give private lessons.

Opening days start the golf calendar and closing days end it, and in between come a stroke-play championship, match-play events, a member-member championship, invitationals, a Bloody Mary Open and Nine and Dine.

What goes on at the Grand Clubhouse?

Meals, formal and casual. The formal dining room handles the dinner dances; the grill room serves casual meals inside and out. "The Palmira Grande Clubhouse offers 42,000 sq. ft," the club says, and that space also holds a wine room, a member bar, card lounges, locker rooms and a room for billiards. The foyer, dining room, grill room and wine room were redone in summer 2023.

Two club groups reach past golf, starting with a Wine Club that holds tastings and wine-pairing dinners. The Fishing Club books more than 25 trips a year with professional captains, offshore and inshore, to Pine Island Sound, Estero Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands and the Keys.

How far is the beach, and how far is Naples?

The Gulf is at the west end of Bonita Beach Road. Bonita Beach Park is 8.2 miles from the Palmira entrance and the north access to Barefoot Beach is 8.0, both about 16 minutes before season traffic. Downtown Bonita Springs, at Riverside Park on Old 41, is closer: 4.7 miles, about 10 minutes.

Shopping means Coconut Point, 10.7 miles and about 20 minutes, or Gulf Coast Town Center, 14.5 miles and about 22. Heading south into Naples, NCH North Naples Hospital is 9.2 miles, about 17 minutes, and Mercato 11.1 miles, about 20. The airport terminal at RSW is 18.2 miles, about 26 minutes. Those times assume light traffic, and winter lengthens all of them.

What kinds of homes are there, and what do they cost?

Custom estate homes, coach homes and single-family villas range from about 1,500 to about 3,750 square feet, with 2 to 5 bedrooms. Some date from 2002, and some of the large custom houses were finished in 2014.

Price them as two markets, because they are. Coach-home sales have run from the $360,000s to the low $700,000s. Single-family homes start in the mid-$600,000s, and a small group of large custom homes has gone for between just under $2 million and nearly $3 million. One range across both would describe neither.

Does buying a home here get you golf?

No. The 27 holes and the Grand Clubhouse belong to The Golf Club at Palmira, a member-owned club governed by a board of its own. It sells its own memberships. "Residency is not required," the club says, so living here and belonging there are separate questions. A buyer deals with the homeowners' side and the golf club separately.

Membership comes in three forms:

• Golf, with a vote
• Wait List Golf, with "limited golf in season, full social access"
• Social, without a vote, with summer golf among its privileges

All three are "Non-Refundable, Non-Transferable" when bought new. Golf has a ceiling: "As a member of Palmira, you will be one of only 375 golf members." A wait-list tier means there is a line to get on the course.

Two recent projects were paid for without billing members. Of the course irrigation project finished in August 2026, it wrote: "This project was done with no assessment to members." It says the same of the 2023 clubhouse renovation.

If you're moving here to play the course, the house alone won't put you on it. Some homes are sold with an existing golf membership that can move to the new owner under the club's bylaws, so pin down whether the one you want is among them before you sign. The club's wording on that is five words long: "Some homes have this option."