Worthington Country Club

The main dining room at Worthington Country Club seats up to 175 around an inlaid hardwood dance floor, under chandeliers and a vaulted ceiling, with a view of the lake and the course. The Pub Room bar and its verandah are the casual option, and the Crown Room off the foyer takes private dinners of up to 14. From October to April the clubhouse keeps a calendar to fill them: in 2025-26, a Bites and Bottles evening every month, a wine dinner in most, bingo on the first Monday night, trivia, Italian nights and Friday entertainment.

The clubhouse belongs to the owners of 799 homes in Bonita Springs. They share about 328 acres of lakes and golf, gated, where Bonita Beach Road meets Bonita Grande Drive. Every deed carries a club membership.

What is the golf course like?

Par 72, from six sets of tees plus three combination tees, at 4,574 to 6,730 yards. Golf course architect Ron Garl renovated it in 2018: rebuilt greens and bunkers, TifEagle on the greens, Celebration Bermuda on the fairways, new irrigation. The work filled in the water short of the greens on 11, 15 and 17, so you can run a ball on. The club calls the 18th its signature peninsula hole.

The full-length range plays out over water, with a chipping green, bunker and big putting green alongside, and range balls are included. The PGA professionals teach lessons and clinics, and Trackman fittings come at no extra charge. The 2026-27 season opened with a mixer on 17 October and runs to late April, with a set Game of the Day every week.

Summer is quieter, not shut. Tee times start at 7:30 a.m., nine minutes apart, and ice towels wait at the water stations. The course closed for maintenance twice in 2026, for most of June and most of August. From May through October the 2026 reciprocal list opened roughly seventy other Southwest Florida clubs to owners, a few of them for dining only.

What is there besides golf?

Tennis is five Har-Tru clay courts, three lit. A teaching professional works October through April, drop-in doubles goes off at 8 a.m. five mornings a week, and league teams play across Lee and Collier counties.

Three shaded bocce courts at the east end of the campus open at 8:30 a.m. and stay open until sunset. Leagues play most days in season, including a Saturday league between neighborhood association teams.

The Activity Center keeps 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., every day, with a workout room, a class studio for yoga and Pilates, and meeting rooms where card games and mahjong meet.

The club pool and spa are open from dawn until dusk, without a lifeguard. Next to them, the Cabana is a screened bar and dining room warmed by a fireplace on winter evenings, and golfers make the turn at the take-out window by its back door. In October 2026 the pool deck and cabana were being rebuilt.

How far is Worthington from the beach and the airport?

Publix is across Bonita Grande Drive, about a quarter mile from the main gate. Bonita Beach Park on Hickory Boulevard is about 7 miles and 14 minutes by car, Coconut Point about 10 miles and 18 minutes, and Southwest Florida International Airport about 17 miles and 24 minutes. The longer runs go south into Naples, with Mercato about 10 miles and 18 minutes, Fifth Avenue South about 18 miles and 28 minutes. Allow more time in season.

What homes are there, and what do they sell for?

Detached houses, villas, garden condominiums and carriage homes, which the club says went up between 1991 and 1994. No one is building here, so you buy from an owner. Homes have 2 to 4 bedrooms, and prices split into two markets. From April 2025 to October 2026:

• Condominiums and carriage homes, the smaller homes, sold from the $100,000s to around $450,000
• Houses and villas sold from the high $300,000s to around $950,000

Every home also falls under one of nine neighborhood associations: Worthington Single Family I and II, Worthington Villas I and II, three Waterford associations (Amberley Court, Cavendish Court, Worthington Way) and two Wedgewood associations (Sherburne, Fountain).

Do you have to join the club to buy here?

Buying is joining. The 2024 master declaration ties one membership to each home, makes it compulsory, and hands it to the next owner with the deed. There's no separate application to get in, and no equity or initiation fee. The master association runs the course, clubhouse and courts with its own staff, and owners' golf is in the dues.

The buyer does owe one thing at closing. The master association levies a resale capital contribution, about $12,500 for a new owner in 2026, and the declaration names who owes it: "Payment of the Resale Capital Contribution shall be the legal obligation of the purchaser or transferee." The board can change the figure, and an owner already in Worthington pays a lower rate. Each neighborhood association adds about $150 as an application fee. Treat both as closing costs.

What do the dues come to?

Every home gets two bills. The master association's was about $13,000 a year in 2026, about $1,100 a month, on every home alike. The board resets it annually, and the neighborhood association's runs from about $2,600 to about $7,700 a year on 2026 figures, depending on which of the nine. Budget around $1,750 a month for the pair. It's set near the top for planning, and some neighborhoods come in well under it.

Then come the dining minimum, about $1,000 a year per household, and carts. A registered, insured private cart pays a trail fee of about $1,900 a year. Club carts are charged by the round or the year, and walking is allowed from 4 p.m.

Here is the part to weigh: a home where nobody golfs pays the same master dues as one on the first tee every morning, because the membership belongs to the house.

Can you rent out a home at Worthington?

Yes, with limits. A lease runs 30 days to a year, four at most per calendar year, furnished. The neighborhood board approves each lease, then the club's general manager. During the lease the tenant has the club privileges and you don't, and a neighborhood association's own rules can be tighter.

Fishing, swimming, boating and paddle-boarding are banned on every lake inside the gates. Radio-controlled model boats get the only exception, a stretch of their own behind the golf pro shop.