Esplanade Golf and Country Club

Esplanade Golf & Country Club is a gated North Naples community built around an 18-hole golf course, about 3 miles east of I-75. Roughly two-thirds of it isn't houses and streets at all, but preserve, wetland, lakes and trails.

The thing that decides most about a purchase here is what a particular home carries in the way of club membership. It varies from address to address. Two similar houses can hold different memberships, and that difference changes both the annual cost and what a member is able to book. So pin it down on the address before you fall for the house.

How much of Esplanade is actually built on?

Less than the entrance suggests: the club puts the property at "approximately 1,798 acres, 1,000 of which are dedicated to natural preserves, wetlands, and walking trails", with more than 170 acres of lakes beyond that.

The trails run through the community rather than around its edge. That's the difference you notice day to day: the preserve is something you cross on the way somewhere, not a green border seen from the road. It also sets what the views are, and none of it can be built on later.

What is the golf like at Esplanade?

Chris Wilczynski designed the 18 holes, and the club describes the course as "recognized as one of Golf Digest's Best New Courses in 2014".

Troon Privé manages the club, and that reaches past the front gate. Golf members, it says, "enjoy access to Troon Privé courses and amenities, and opportunities to experience Troon Golf Resort and daily fee locations at preferred rates". If you travel and play, it's worth asking which memberships carry it.

What else is on the property?

Dining, a fitness center, a resort pool, and courts for tennis, pickleball and bocce. The Koquina Sand Spa and Salon covers the spa and salon side of it. As the club puts it, all of that happens "all without leaving the community", which is a fair description of how the place is laid out.

What kind of homes does Esplanade have?

Roughly 4 detached houses for every 3 low-rise condominiums, plus a small number of townhouses. The condominium buildings are low-rise throughout, so nothing here is a tower and nothing sits more than a few floors up. Homes measure from about 1,500 to about 4,150 square feet, with 2 to 4 bedrooms.

The houses went up from the mid-2010s onward, so the construction is young and the finishes are of a piece. That shows up in the running of a house: the roofs, the systems and the windows are all of a similar age, which is a different proposition from a community built across several decades.

Prices run from the $380,000s to around $4 million. A span that broad across one gate is mostly a question of house type, and partly a question of what membership sits behind the door.

What should you pin down on a specific address?

• The membership that address carries, and what it costs each year.
• What the monthly fee pays for, and which charges land on top of it.
• What that membership lets a member book, tee times included, if the golf is the reason you are looking here.

Every home here sits in a golf community whether or not the owner plays, because the course is what the streets were laid out around. The land is the other half of that story. Preserve, wetland and lake take up more of this property than the houses do, and the trails cut through the middle of it rather than skirting the edge.