The Gate Golf Club in Naples, Florida, is on track to open its new nine-hole golf course in December 2026, marking the next chapter for a property that once housed the 18-hole Golden Gate Country Club.
The redevelopment follows Collier County’s 2019 purchase of the approximately 165-acre property for $29.1 million. The goal was to prevent intensive private development and preserve public golf on the site.
Golden Gate Country Club originally opened in 1964 as an 18-hole public course designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee. It closed Aug. 1, 2019, and remained dormant for several years as the county explored redevelopment options.
Ultimately, portions of the property were designated for affordable workforce housing and a state veterans’ nursing home, while the remaining land was earmarked for a redesigned public golf facility.
“The opportunity emerged after the county purchased the property with the clear intention of protecting public golf,” said Kristina Schmieding, president of The Gate Golf Club. “When the original development partner withdrew in 2023, our family established a nonprofit and submitted an unsolicited proposal to redevelop and operate the course as an accessible public facility.”
Collier County approved a long-term lease and operating agreement with The Gate Golf Club in April 2024, allowing the redevelopment to move forward.
After approximately a year of funding and permitting work, construction began in February 2025.
A new nine-hole golf course
The centerpiece of the project is a new regulation-length nine-hole course designed by Jacobsen Hardy Golf Design. The development also includes The Bays, a 30-bay practice range featuring TrackMan technology; The Gater, a 48,500-square-foot, 18-hole putting course; new maintenance facilities; a clubhouse area; and a restaurant and bar.
The new nine-hole course begins and finishes near the clubhouse and has been routed around portions of the property designated for housing and the veterans’ nursing home.
While the layout is entirely new, Jacobsen Hardy incorporated several of the former course’s playing corridors into the design.
“Reusing those corridors allowed us to work with the site’s established ponds, drainage areas, prevailing wind patterns and mature trees,” Schmieding said.
Several of the adjacent holes occupy broad corridors that provide room for generous fairways and multiple playing angles. The former greens, however, were not retained.
Glase Golf reshaped the property and built new tees, bunkers and green complexes. Old cart paths were removed, crushed and reused as base material.
“The result is a newly constructed course that retains parts of the original property’s orientation and mature character without reproducing the former layout,” Schmieding said.
The course will range from 1,228 yards from the junior tees to 3,346 yards from the black tees. Celebration Bermuda will be used on the fairways and tees, while the greens will feature TifEagle.
Designed for golfers of all abilities
The Gate’s design philosophy emphasizes accessibility without eliminating strategic elements.
Wide landing areas will give golfers room for imperfect shots, while bunkers, ponds, swales and waste areas will force players to think about how they approach the greens.
The bunkers are designed to avoid being excessively deep or penal. Instead, they will encourage golfers to use a variety of short-game shots, including chips and putts from areas around the greens.
The layout will also mix challenging holes with scoring opportunities. The short par-4 eighth hole, for example, is intended to provide golfers with a realistic birdie opportunity.
“The designers intend the course to be welcoming and playable without removing strategy,” Schmieding said. “Overall, the course is intended to challenge skilled golfers without overwhelming beginners, juniors or recreational players.”
The walkable layout and multiple teeing areas will allow golfers to choose distances and levels of difficulty appropriate for their abilities.
Working with the existing landscape
The limited amount of developable land played a significant role in the routing.
Because portions of the former 18-hole property were allocated to other uses, the golf course had to be designed around those parcels while still beginning and ending near the clubhouse.
The design team also worked around the property's existing ponds, drainage and water-conveyance areas, natural contours, prevailing winds and mature trees.
“Rather than extensively reshaping the land, the designers routed the holes around those features, retained the old-growth trees and removed much of the accumulated underbrush,” Schmieding said.
That approach is expected to give the course an open appearance while allowing it to look relatively mature when it opens.
The designers also prioritized playability by taking advantage of the width available between adjacent holes. In some areas, the combined corridors are wide enough to accommodate three fairways, although only two were ultimately constructed.
That additional space creates wider landing areas and gives golfers more room to recover from errant shots.
As a public, nonprofit facility and future home of First Tee – Naples/Collier, The Gate is being designed to serve a broad audience, including juniors, families, beginners and experienced golfers.
More than just a golf course
Golfers will have several ways to practice, learn and play at The Gate.
The facility's golf operation will provide instructional programming, while First Tee – Naples/Collier will offer youth golf and life-skills programming from a new headquarters on the property.
The project is a collaborative effort involving Collier County, The Gate Golf Club and First Tee – Naples/Collier as founding partners. Collier County is contributing $6 million to the project.
A number of additional organizations have provided financial, professional or in-kind support.
MHK Architecture donated architectural design services, while Freestyle Interiors provided interior design services. Arthrex donated project management services, and Arthrex StudioX contributed video and photography.
Other project partners include Smith Media & Design, MG-IP Law, LJA Engineering, Jenkins Maag Associates, Doug Hellman of Hellman & Partners, DeAngelis Diamond, TrackMan, Range Servant and Vice Golf.
When it opens in December 2026, The Gate Golf Club will give Naples a new public golf facility built on the footprint of a property that has served local golfers for more than six decades—while adding practice, instruction, youth programming, dining and other amenities to the site.
