Extraordinary Properties

BY MARCELLE SUSSMAN FISCHLER

“Some want to be on the fairway with their morning coffee and watch the golf carts go by,”

says Jason Becker, chief executive of Golf Life Navigators, a site matching people with golf memberships and homes. Others crave a garage with room for a golf cart “to take the grandkids to the pool”.

Many also delight in the amenity-laden communal living and security country club enclaves provide. In Palm Springs, Scottsdale, Naples, Palm Beach and Hilton Head, most private clubs are gated and guarded.

Golf homes are also designed for entertaining. At Desert Mountain, a double-gated golf and active lifestyle community in Arizona, a newly remodelled house has a round Great Room with picture windows overlooking the 15th hole of the Geronimo, one of seven golf courses. “It’s a riff on contemporary Pueblo-style,” says Daniel Wolski of Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty. A roof deck with a fire pit is “set up for mountain and golf course views with sunsets and city lights on the wide horizon”.

In the backyard, there’s a putting green, saltwater pool and spa. The outdoor kitchen has a smoker and an Evo griddle for alfresco cooking — when there’s time to dine at home amid the whirl of communal activities.

Opening this year near Palm Beach, Panther National is upping the ante. Its custom homes include garages with a golf cart space, electric car chargers and private pools. Besides the golf course, a training facility features the latest ball-tracing technology, an indoor simulator and a putting room. A family wellness centre has a spa with rejuvenation and beauty services and a yoga studio.

After all, golf is more than a sport. It’s a lifestyle.

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