In a 2023 report, the R&A (Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews) shared new global participation ... [+]
Imagining the first round of golf ever played is a curious exercise. Historians have pinned down some basic facts: it was invented in Scotland around the 15th century and initially played with wooden sticks and pebbles. Apart from that, little else is known about golf’s precise provenance. And yet, taking what we know of modern golf, we can safely envision a few possible scenes. The whoosh of the stick and crack of that first pebble as it took flight. The competitive glint in the eye of the player who hit theirs the furthest. The unexplained bliss of watching it fall into the hole.
Today, there are more than 35,000 golf courses worldwide, many the heart of golf resorts and communities. With the promise of bringing play to your door, golf properties are in high demand and markets have grown increasingly competitive.
Ready to tee up? Consider these five homes that are anything but par for the course.
The dramatic shoreline of Costa Rica lends itself to first-rate golf courses and world-class second ... [+]
$5.15 Million Resort Residence Above the Trees in Costa Rica
It would take half a millennium for golf to arrive in Costa Rica and 50 more years for it to gain popularity. Of the 12 courses currently found across the country, eight were completed in the last 30 years. These were no rinky-dink operations, mind you. Big hospitality hitters like Four Seasons and Marriott enlisted renowned architects whose world-class courses would transform the Central American nation into a golfing destination. When Westin began developing its seaside resort, Reserva Conchal, it sought the expertise of Robert Trent Jones Jr., who, along with his famous father, had designed hundreds of courses worldwide. Jones was an early champion for eco-conscious construction, making him the perfect architect to navigate the country’s strict conservation requirements. The result is a course that quietly makes the most of Costa Rica’s dramatic landscape.
The same goes for Reserva Conchal’s W Residence #10. Encompassing 550 square meters, the resort home sits among a shroud of canopies atop a hill overlooking the ocean. Its rounded aesthetic takes inspiration from Costa Rica’s native Guanacaste tree. Highlights include a pool, four en-suite bedrooms with private terraces, and access to tennis and pickleball courts, a state-of-the-art gym and Jones’s 18-hole course.
A modern mountain aesthetic meets golf community amenities at this Lahontan home.
Sophisticated $5.5 Million Cabin in Truckee, California
Five years after its official incorporation in 1993, the town of Truckee, California received its first residential golf community, Lahontan. Spanning 1,000 acres of Martis Valley, Lahontan is carved out of a landscape of rock-faced walls, spring-fed meadows and thickets of Jeffery, ponderosa and lodgepole pines. This ruggedness heightens the polished execution of the Tom Weiskopf-designed course that centers the community. By contrast at the northern end of Lahontan, a custom hillside estate prefers to disappear into the scenery.
The secluded four-bedroom home’s timber and stone structure calls little attention to itself, even as it rises in tiers up the gentle slope of the hill. Stone steps connect outdoor spaces across 1.5 acres, meandering as if in the path of a creek. The disappearing act continues inside. A grand stone fireplace evokes a mountain rockface. Wood planks along the ceiling mimic a canopy. Generous windows frame the sylvan surroundings. The home’s 4,700 square feet of interior space allows for spacious bedroom retreats while accommodating open-floor living areas for large gatherings.
Hidden away in one of Portugal's most affluent corners, Estoril Golf Club is just thirty minutes ... [+]
Renovated €7 Million Villa With Golf Course Views in Portugal
At 5.2 kilometers, the course at Estoril Golf Club is notoriously short. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s simple. With narrow fairways, elevation changes and severe doglegs, Estoril—one of Portugal’s oldest courses—demands accuracy and skill over distance. In the same way, this adjacent villa is not to be underestimated. Despite displays of traditional architecture along its facade, a complete and skilful renovation has updated the residence for modern tastes.
Black-casement, floor-to-ceiling glass doors run the length of the main level, gifting the living room, kitchen and dining area with views of the property’s enclosed gardens. The top floor is reserved entirely for the primary suite, with a private terrace, two bathrooms, seating area and fireplace. The villa’s cellars have been repurposed into an additional living space, housing a media zone, generator and a squash court. About the rest of the property is a six-car garage topped by a separate apartment, a vegetable garden and a detached spa complete with a sauna, Turkish bath and jacuzzi.
Hawaii has produced some of the world's most renowned golf courses, two of which call the Kapalua ... [+]
$8.95 Million New Construction at Maui’s Elite Golf Resort
Two championship golf courses, each having hosted PGA and LPGA tour events, are housed within the Kapalua Resort on the verdant bluffs of northwest Maui. The Plantation Course is perhaps best known as the annual Sentry Tournament of Champions venue for over 25 years. The Bay Course, opened in 1975, has hosted more than 20 major professional tournaments and was even the locale for the first live prime-time televised event in golf. Such prestige warrants an equally elite resort: Kapalua. The 1,650-acre, master-planned community has received countless accolades, including being named Travel + Leisure's number-one golf resort in Hawaii, receiving Audobon Cooperative Sanctuary status and a AAA Five-Diamond Hotel designation for its Ritz-Carlton hotel.
One of the latest residential communities in Kapalua, Mahana Estates, is supplying the resort with new-construction properties, like this 2024 residence. Hidden in the mountains above the coast, 500 Mahana Ridge St offers one of Kapalua's vastest vistas. Walls of glass ensure these ocean views are never far away. A two-bedroom guest cottage at the back of the 2.5-acre property accompanies the four-bedroom main house. Other highlights include a salt-water swimming pool, an outdoor kitchen and a flex space bordering the great room.
Were a view of the third green of the La Jolla Country Club not exciting enough, this fairway home ... [+]
The La Jolla Country Club Home That Almost Wasn’t
A few years following the completion of this 2,800-square-foot home on the La Jolla Country Club course, murmurs of relocation began circulating the links. Soon after, the club’s board asked members to vote on a proposal to sell the oceanside course to real estate developers and migrate inland to nearby Carmel Valley. Thankfully, the movement was shut down, and 7505 Pepita Way kept its fairway views.
The absence of obstructions also preserved an eyeline to the ocean horizon. Located on a coveted corner lot, the three-bedroom home is directly on the border of the Country Club and Village of La Jolla neighborhoods. Classically Californian, outdoor living spaces are accessible from almost any room in the house. Relaxing outside is hazard-free—a bundle of trees and a slight dogleg in the 3rd-hole fairway provide protection from wayward balls. Price upon request.
Living Luxury Costa Rica, Tahoe Mountain Realty, Portugal Forbes Global Properties, Hawai’i Life and Willis Allen Real Estate are all members of Forbes Global Properties, the exclusive real estate partner of Forbes.
