Olde Hickory Golf & Country Club

Dinner dances, themed buffet nights and happy hours with live music: Olde Hickory Golf & Country Club keeps all three on its calendar, and runs them year round. Most of it happens in the clubhouse on Olde Hickory Boulevard, renovated in 2020, where game days belong to a big oval bar ringed by eight large televisions. Out back, a covered terrace looks across the course and the driving range, and its fire pit is where an evening drink goes.

Around that clubhouse, the club counts 561 homes in South Fort Myers lining a single 18-hole Ron Garl course, each of which carries membership in the club. The road in leaves Daniels Parkway at Fiddlesticks Boulevard, runs about 1.2 miles, then turns onto Olde Hickory Boulevard, where the club's directions say gate access is required.

What is a round of golf at Olde Hickory like?

Par 72, split 36 and 36, with six tee sets stretching from 4,686 yards on the forward set to 6,600 on the longest. Ron Garl designed the layout and returned in 2013 to help rebuild it completely. TifEagle Bermuda went onto the greens, Celebration Bermuda onto the fairways and rough, and a computer-controlled Toro system replaced the irrigation across the whole course.

Players reserve their tee times on an automated booking system, and the club's rule for walkers is simple: after 4 p.m., on any day, you can walk the course. The PGA staff give private lessons, playing lessons and group clinics, out on a driving range that the clubhouse terrace overlooks.

Regular games run through the club's optional golf associations. In season, an 18-hole group plays every Thursday and sits down to a luncheon once a month. On Tuesdays from October to May, an 18-hole group and a nine-hole group each set their own games, mixing team and individual formats.

What is there to do off the course?

Six courts, every one lit for evening play: two Har-Tru for tennis and four more for pickleball. Tennis has open court time alongside organized doubles and mixed matches, and ping pong is on the club's list too.

The fitness center covers more than 2,600 square feet and faces out onto the course. Cardio and strength work get separate areas, with free weights, machines and room for one-on-one training, while aerobics, dance and yoga classes meet in a dedicated studio.

Beside the clubhouse, the pool is heated through the winter and has a spa next to it. Lap swimming and water aerobics happen here, and food and drink are served at the poolside. The Poolside Activities Center next door is home to the scheduled table games and the arts and crafts groups.

Where do you eat at the club?

Two rooms and a terrace. Beside the Main Dining Room, the Grille Room is the more casual of the pair, serving lunch and dinner and running theme nights. Outside, the covered terrace sets tables for lunch after a round. A certified executive chef leads the kitchen, and a sommelier looks after the wine pairings.

How far is Olde Hickory from the airport, Bell Tower and the beaches?

The Publix on Fiddlesticks Boulevard is about 1.4 road miles from the gate, a drive of three or four minutes. Gulf Coast Medical Center on Doctor's Way is about 4.5 miles, roughly eight minutes. Bell Tower Shops is about 5.8 miles, near 11 minutes.

The terminal at Southwest Florida International Airport measures about 7.7 miles, some 13 minutes. Gulf Coast Town Center is about 7 miles, in a similar time. Downtown Fort Myers and its River District sit about 13 miles off, roughly 21 minutes.

Sand takes longer. Lynn Hall Memorial Park on Fort Myers Beach is about 15 road miles, around 27 minutes. Lighthouse Beach Park on Sanibel is about 21 miles, over the Sanibel Causeway, near 37 minutes. All of these assume clear roads. Every one stretches in season, when traffic builds.

What kinds of homes are there, and what have they sold for?

The club counts 175 single-family houses, 126 attached villas, and 260 low-rise condominiums known as the Verandas. Across the homes sold or listed here, sizes span about 1,200 to about 3,150 square feet and 2 to 4 bedrooms, and every one was built between 1992 and 1996.

Taking houses, villas and Verandas together, Olde Hickory homes sold from the $150,000s to around $800,000. That span mixes all three kinds, so it can't tell you where a detached house sits within it, or where a Verandas condominium does. Price the kind you want on its own.

Is the club part of every home, and what does that cost?

Yes. Olde Hickory calls itself a bundled golf community, and the club puts the bundle in one line: "Every homeowner is a full member of the Club with all privileges, whether or not you play golf." Buying the home is joining. A buyer files no separate application and waits for no golf slot.

Cost is the open part. The club's pages give no figure for what membership costs or how it's billed. For the exact home you're considering, pin these down on paper before an offer:

• what the master association charges
• what that home's neighborhood association charges
• whether a capital contribution, a transfer fee or any other charge falls due at closing

Automatic membership and nothing owed at closing are two different promises, and the club's pages make only the first.

A master association owns the common areas and the club facilities. One board handles the business affairs of both the club and the master body, and the general manager holds a community association manager's license. Below the master association sit three neighborhood associations, HOA I, HOA II and HOA III. The club posts the governing documents for the master association and for each neighborhood on its website, where a buyer can read them before signing.