Calusa Pines Golf Club

Calusa Pines opened in November 2001 on what had been a dead-flat parcel a few miles inland from Naples. Chicago venture capitalist Gary Chesnoff commissioned architects Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry to build something unlike anything else in south Florida. Their answer was dramatic: they blasted through the underlying limestone to carve out lakes, then used the excavated fill to raise ridgelines and elevation changes reported at nearly 60 feet above the fairways, an anomaly in the pancake-flat region. Mature oaks, pines, and sabal palms frame the holes, and the club takes its name from the Calusa people who once inhabited southwest Florida. Fiercely private and golf-only, the course quickly earned national acclaim, ranking among the best American layouts built since 2000 and cementing a reputation as one of Collier County's most exclusive retreats.