Lexington Country Club

The verandah of the Lexington Country Club clubhouse, on Willowcrest Way, faces the 9th and the 18th, a view the dining rooms and lounge behind it share. Menus run to lunch, dinner and dessert, and tables can be booked online. The club says its "dining venues are available to members as well as non-members and for private functions." Some dinners on the club calendar come with dancing to live entertainers.

The less formal side lives at the Island Club, which puts an outdoor Tiki Bar, with its own menu, beside a pool and jacuzzi. The fitness center and the library are there as well. That's where the informal social events are held. The club's activity list takes in crafts, painting, quilting, exercise classes, card games, mah jongg and bridge, with club groups for boating, fishing, bocce and cycling. One club serves all 1,479 homes, which sit in South Fort Myers below Summerlin Road, with Bass Road along one side and Winkler Road along the other.

What is the golf course at Lexington like?

Eighteen holes, the work of Gordon Lewis, finished in 1995. In 2015 the membership voted for a complete renovation drawn by Kipp Schulties Golf Design, and the work began in April 2017. Celebration grass covers the course from tee to green, with TifEagle on the putting surfaces.

The club lists "generous fairways, large greens, plenty of risk/reward opportunities, strategic bunkers, and numerous water hazards." Rock walls show up along the way too. Six sets of tees step down from more than 7,000 yards at the back, so the same holes play long or short depending on where you tee off.

What is there to play besides golf?

Court sports have a director of their own. Ten Har-Tru tennis courts, four of them lit, share the Hydro-Grid surface with four pickleball courts. The weekly program has drill clinics, round-robin socials, a league each for men and women, and drop-in doubles, and intra-club championships are on offer for anyone after competition. Play runs until 9:30 at night, and the court pro shop strings racquets.

Bocce is simpler. Three courts sit at the corner of Willowcrest Way and the clubhouse parking lot, and the equipment is kept right there, so you don't have to bring a set. Swimming is spread out: six heated pools in all, two large community pools and several smaller ones in the neighborhoods. The fitness center opens at 5am and closes at 10pm, daily, and on the first Monday of each month it runs an orientation class on the equipment.

Can the clubhouse host a wedding or a private party?

Yes, and outside weddings are welcome. The Vista Ballroom holds up to 150 and looks over the course; it can be booked whole or divided in half. The Seasons Room takes about 100, and the smaller Waterford and Wedgewood Rooms combine for about 40. For the largest occasions the entire clubhouse can be reserved, Vista Ballroom, Grille Room, lounge and patio together, though the club warns that availability is limited.

How far is Lexington from the beach, the shops and the airport?

HealthPark and the nearest Publix are both inside two miles. Measured from the Willowcrest Way entrance, by road:

• HealthPark Medical Center campus, about 1.2 miles, some five minutes
• Publix on Summerlin Road, about 1.8 miles
• Bell Tower Shops, about 5.2 miles, roughly 11 minutes
• Lynn Hall Memorial Park, Fort Myers Beach, about 6.1 miles, near 13 minutes with clear roads
• Gulf Coast Town Center, about 11 miles
• Downtown Fort Myers' River District, about 11.9 miles, roughly 24 minutes
• Lighthouse Beach Park, Sanibel, over the Sanibel Causeway, about 12 miles, around 23 minutes
• Southwest Florida International Airport terminal, roughly 15 miles, close to 26 minutes

Expect each drive to stretch in winter, once seasonal traffic builds on the main roads.

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

Three kinds: single-family estate homes and villa homes, plus condominiums grouped into five named neighborhoods, Sommerset Villas, Southmont Cove, Sutton Walk, Waterford and Wedgewood. Each of those five has its own declaration, its own rules and its own budget.

Homes listed or sold here were built from 1995, the year the course was finished, to 2000. They range from about 1,050 to about 2,850 square feet, with 2 to 4 bedrooms. Across Lexington as a whole, homes have sold from the $130,000s to around $900,000.

Does golf come with a home at Lexington?

It turns on which village the house is in. In the club's words, "Lexington Country Club consists of both a Golf Village and a Lake Village." Whether a home here comes with golf, and on which terms, is different in each village. A golfer should get the arrangement for that exact home confirmed in writing before signing a contract. It's the question that most changes what a house here is worth to you.

Ownership costs come in layers too. The Lexington Community Association takes in the entire community, and each condominium neighborhood also has its own association. Ask each one what it charges and what that charge pays for. The club posts the paperwork for every neighborhood on its own website: declarations, rules, budgets, question-and-answer sheets and an application for a transfer.