Best golf courses near Naples, FL

Calusa’s developer, Gary Chensoff, a Chicago venture capitalist, survived a rare form of cancer despite long odds, and his recovery strongly influenced how Calusa Pines was designed and built. Chensoff decided to gamble, instructing Hurdzan-Fry to design the most unique course in South Florida despite a dead flat site. They responded by piling up fill from ponds to form ridgelines up to 58 feet, then planted them with mature oaks, pines and sabal palms. Calusa Pines sports perhaps the firmest, fastest Bermuda fairways and greens in Florida, currently rivaled only by the turf at Streamsong. Recent removal of overgrown vegetation between holes has returned beautiful long-range views to the course and made it more playable. Calusa Pines continues to creep forward in the ranking, moving up one more place this year.

This P.B. Dye golf course is the vocal point of a 540-acre gated community just a few minutes from the beach. In 2021, the course resurfaced all 18 greens with TifEagle Bermuda and installed a new subsurface drainage system. All 98 bunkers also had work done.

You might consider Naples National a test run for Calusa Pines. Built eight years earlier by the same team of architects, Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, on a site nine miles away, Naples National occupies a similar type of vegetated, swampy, non-descript land requiring significant enhancement to make it work. Excavated lakes provided material to create topographical interest, sandscapes and alluring landscaping, just on a smaller scale than at Calusa Pines, where a similar approach would create a large dune system 60 feet high that holes could run up and down. Though more modest in scale and elevation change, Naples National is just as unique. A thick layer of coral rock beneath the site that had to be pounded out for necessary irrigation was repurposed as colorful edging support for lakes and hazards, and also for an ongoing motif of rock walls that run along fairways, greens and bunkers.

Of the public options sprinkled across Naples, Greg Norman's Tiburón courses at the Ritz-Carlton provide the best balance of quality golf and convenience, situated in the heart of North Naples. That ideal combination comes at a cost, though, as green fees can be upward of $300. The Gold course—ranked on our Best Courses You Can Play in Florida list—features stacked sod wall bunkers and no conventional rough and is home to the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship and the PGA Tour’s QBE Shootout.

Located in Naples and styled after the Mediterranean countryside is the idyllic Club at Mediterra. The club is home to two courses designed by Tom Fazio, the South and North, which opened in 2000 and 2002, respectively. The courses are known for their environmentally friendly designs, with the South course incorporating vast stretches of natural preserves and existing wetlands into the layout, often bordering fairways or protecting putting surfaces, creating dramatic approaches and intimidating tee shots. Tom Fazio made significant renovations to the course in 2015, renovating bunkers, adding new irrigation systems and regrassing fairways and greens. Improvements to tee shot strategy can be seen at the dogleg par-5 seventh, with bunkers shrinking the fairway landing zone and a hazard bordering the entire right side of the hole.

Of the public options sprinkled across Naples, Greg Norman's Tiburón courses at the Ritz-Carlton provide the best balance of quality golf and convenience, situated in the heart of North Naples. That ideal combination comes at a cost, though, as green fees can be upwards of $300. Nestled among the Florida pines, Tiburón Black uses the natural landscape to feature undulating greens and crushed coquina waste areas. Like its sibling Gold course, the Black is featured on our Best Courses You Can Play in Florida list.

If you’re staying close to downtown Naples or on the south side of town, Lely Resort is a great public option. There are 54 holes on property, with two of the three layouts open for public play. The par-72 Mustang, designed by World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino, tips out over 7,200 yards and plays through the South Florida marshlands.