Back in June, the club's own website was still running "Everything Must Go" pricing on logo hats, Titleist gear, and whatever FootJoy stock was left on the shelves, with the pro shop holding limited hours while the property wound down. It read like a going-out-of-business sale because, in the way most golfers understood the place, it was one. After nearly two decades as Southwest Florida's only standalone Jack Nicklaus Signature Design course, Old Corkscrew ended daily golf operations for good. This month, the next phase became visible: crews broke ground on what replaces it.
What replaces it is not a new public course. It is a members-only club with a hard cap of 280 people, and understanding why tells you more about where Estero and Bonita Springs golf real estate is heading than any single closing this year.
The Land Was Always the Point
Hoffmann Family of Companies bought Old Corkscrew in 2022, closing on the course and the adjacent Cottages at Old Corkscrew in a pair of transactions totaling $19 million. The company's general manager at the time called the adjoining acreage "a gold mine," and that framing turned out to be the tell. This was never just a golf course changing hands. It was a large, lightly built parcel in a company's portfolio, and golf was one option among several for what the land could eventually become.
Hoffmann Family of Companies already owns another Naples golf property, Old Collier Golf Club, which puts this deal inside a broader pattern of the company holding golf-anchored land across the region rather than treating any single course as a standalone bet. Whether or not Old Collier followed an identical script, the direction here is unmistakable. A course that sold rounds to the public and generated ordinary greens-fee revenue is being replaced by a club that sells almost nothing except access, at a price the open market never sees.
What Scarcity Actually Buys
The new build has a name now: Pandion Club, taken from Pandion haliaetus, the osprey. Golf architect Kyle Phillips broke ground on the redesigned course earlier this month. Phillips built Kingsbarns Golf Links and Dundonald Links in Scotland and has worked on projects from Yas Links in Abu Dhabi to the California Golf Club of San Francisco, so this is not a budget renovation. The new layout is a par-71 stretching to 7,220 yards, designed to evoke English heathland with Lowcountry touches, sitting on 275 acres the company describes as being carefully restored rather than simply repaved. A Lowcountry-style clubhouse and expanded practice facilities are part of the plan. Membership will be capped at 280.
That cap is the entire economic story in one number. A public course wants as many rounds as it can book. A membership-capped private club wants the opposite: enough scarcity that the initiation fee and the waiting list do the selling. Geoff Hoffmann, who leads the company's private equity arm, put it plainly when construction began, saying "From the moment that you drive through our gates, you will know that you have arrived somewhere special." That sentence is not describing turf conditions. It is describing exclusivity as the product.
It also helps explain the timing. Golf Digest's course-ranking panel had Old Corkscrew at 61st in the state for the 2025-'26 cycle, down from 49th in 2023-'24. A softening public ranking on a course that still costs real money to maintain is exactly the moment an owner decides the land is worth more as a private asset than as a public one. One golfer reviewing the course before its closure put the design's difficulty this way: "Jack must have been in a bad mood when he designed this one." Under new ownership, that difficulty becomes a selling point for a different customer entirely, one who wants a hard course and a short membership roster, not a bargain tee time.
The Access Gap Buyers Miss
Here is the detail that matters most if you are comparing Estero communities right now rather than just reading golf news. Old Corkscrew was built with no homes lining any of its 18 holes. Reviewers noted this repeatedly as a selling point, calling it one of the few Southwest Florida courses where you play through forest and wetland rather than past someone's lanai. That also means no HOA in the area ever had deeded access to this specific course. Proximity to Old Corkscrew was always a lifestyle association, not a contractual right.
That distinction is about to matter more, not less. A membership cap of 280 means Pandion Club will not be selling access to whoever happens to live nearby. It will be selling access to whoever applies, pays the initiation fee, and gets approved, the same as any private club anywhere. Homes marketed for the next year as "near the future Pandion Club" carry the same relationship to golf access that they always did: none, unless the buyer separately joins.
Bundled golf communities elsewhere in Bonita Springs and Estero work differently. At places like Worthington Country Club, golf privileges come with the deed, membership rolls run into the hundreds, and dues are structured to keep the course financially self-sustaining across a large resident base rather than a small paying membership. Here is the practical contrast:
| Bundled golf community | Private conversion (Pandion model) | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Included with home purchase | Separate application, not tied to nearby real estate |
| Membership size | Often several hundred households | Hard-capped, here at 280 |
| Fee structure | HOA dues spread across residents | Initiation fee plus dues, set by the club |
| Durability of access | Fixed as long as you own | Contingent on approval and available slots |
If you are evaluating two communities that both list "golf course" as an amenity, this table is the actual due diligence. One guarantees you a tee time because you own a deed. The other guarantees you nothing because proximity was never the mechanism.
What This Means If You're Comparing Communities Right Now
The obvious read on Old Corkscrew closing is that Estero lost a well-regarded public course, and that is true as far as it goes. The more useful read, for anyone actually shopping this market, is that a single ownership group is now running this exact conversion, buying a course whose public rankings are softening, capping membership hard, and letting scarcity carry the value instead of volume, on a portfolio that already includes another private Naples course. If that pattern holds elsewhere, it is worth asking the same question about any golf-adjacent listing between now and late 2027: is this course legally tied to the homes around it, or is it a business that happens to sit near them.
That question changes how you should weigh "golf course community" language in a listing description. It does not change whether Southwest Florida golf real estate remains desirable. It changes what you are actually buying when the brochure mentions a course.
Anyone weighing a purchase near Estero's golf corridor over the next year should ask the listing agent directly whether course access is deeded to the property or simply nearby. The answer determines whether you are buying a guarantee or a hope.
FAQ
Can the public still play Old Corkscrew right now? No. The club's own site confirms daily golf operations have ended for good as the property transitions into Pandion Club, with only the pro shop keeping limited hours during the wind-down.
Is there a public alternative nearby while Pandion Club is built? Nothing in current reporting points to a replacement public course on this parcel. The land is being redeveloped as a private, membership-capped club scheduled to open in late 2027.
Does the same company own other golf courses in the region? Yes. Hoffmann Family of Companies also owns Old Collier Golf Club in Naples, so this fits inside a broader pattern of the company holding golf-anchored land across Southwest Florida rather than a single isolated deal.
Does living near a golf course guarantee access to it? Only if that access is written into the deed or HOA agreement. Old Corkscrew never had homes lining its fairways, so proximity was always separate from access, a distinction worth confirming on any golf-adjacent listing you're considering.
If you are trying to sort out which Estero or Bonita Springs communities actually carry deeded golf access versus proximity to a private club, Ryan Batey can walk you through the difference property by property. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to start the conversation on where your search actually stands.
