3 min read
Apogee has all the usual amenities you’d expect from a golf club in South Florida: multiple courses (naturally), specialized facilities for analyzing and perfecting your game, plus a spa, pools, tennis and pickleball courts, clubhouses and restaurants. But the onsite helipad should tip you off as to the kind of membership the club is hoping to attract—one that can afford to be whisked on to and off the property without passing through the outside world. Nothing could be more luxurious than that.
With a founding membership fee widely rumored to be around $1.1 million, Apogee is one of the most expensive golf clubs in the country to join. Located in Hobe Sound, it’s built around three courses, the first of which opened in 2023. Guests do not stay in private residences in the usual club sense, rows of houses built around the course. Instead, they reserve one of just 14 two- or four-bedroom villas. (More villas are planned as the project continues to expand.) These are strictly for members and their guests, and the property itself is rarely opened to outsiders.
Arielle Warren
A view inside the clubhouse.
The club was developed by Stephen Ross, the billionaire behind the Related Companies (and owner of the Miami Dolphins), who partnered with Michael Pascucci, the founder of Sebonack Golf Club and the developer behind The Bear’s Club. They recruited Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to design the West Course; Tom Fazio II and Mike Davis the South; and Kyle Phillips the third. Rory McIlroy and Ernie Els—both founding members—served as course advisors and together conceived the 360-degree practice facility, a 55-acre complex that includes a St. Andrews-inspired Himalayas putting green. “It’s what some may call golf heaven,” Ross tells ELLE Decor.
The intent, Ross says, was to create something that would help attract the world’s business elite to Florida’s Gold Coast. That larger ambition is visible in the villas because they were never treated as an afterthought, says Jim Tinson, partner and chief executive of Hart Howerton, which served as the master planner and architect for the project. (Hart Howerton projects include Yellowstone Club, Palmetto Bluff, and Kukio Golf & Beach Club.) “We create places, not projects,” Tinson says.
Venjhamin Reyes
Tinson describes the villas as “bow tie cottages,” with clusters placed to the north and south of the West Clubhouse so that the clubhouse forms the center—each is close enough to feel connected to the action but far enough away to still feel like a retreat. The one-story forms hug the landscape rather than dominate it.
Floor-to-ceiling glazing, deep overhangs and clerestory windows give the villas a residential quality while keeping them open to the course and the view. The goal of the design was comfort, but not the bland kind. “You want people to walk in and feel at ease,” Tinson says, “but not like they’ve seen it a hundred times before.”
The villas work because the boundary between inside and out is barely there, says Gray Davis, co-owner of New York City-based architecture and interior design studio Meyer Davis, which conceived of the interiors. “It’s all one language,” he notes. Materials carry across both, so outdoor rooms feel like indoor ones. Brands like Perennials, RH, and Palecek appear throughout. Ross likes using stone (which can also be seen throughout the clubhouse), but it can feel heavy, so they balanced it with lighter materials to guarantee the rooms feel open and never dark.
Venjhamin Reyes
A villa bedroom
Venjhamin Reyes
The bathroom
Davis says they were careful not to lean into obvious regional cues or the kind of decorative excess that defines much of Florida luxury right now. “There’s a lot of fake fancy out there,” Tinson said. “We didn’t want that.”
Venjhamin Reyes
A patio facing the green.