Inside the gates of a 220-acre enclave east of I-95, there are no tee times. At Dutchman's Pipe, the new ultra-private club in the heart of West Palm Beach, members simply arrive and play — a 7,287-yard Jack Nicklaus Signature Course laid out across some of the scarcest, most coveted land within a few miles of Palm Beach Island, and the first new private golf club to open in the city in 25 years.
That freedom is the whole point. The club is built around the idea of golf on your own clock — long, generously spaced fairways that feel a world away from the tight, time-slotted courses elsewhere in Palm Beach, framed by fresh landscaping and native vegetation, including the flowering Dutchman's Pipe vine that gives the club its name and draws swallowtail butterflies to the margins of play. The Nicklaus Design team reworked the routing's fairways, bunkers, and green complexes to sharpen both its beauty and its playability, so the course rewards the scratch player from the back tees while staying enjoyable for everyone ahead of them.
It is, unmistakably, a place built for players — and for the ones who aspire to play like them. The practice experience runs to a level usually reserved for tour stops: a driving range stocked with every ball on the market, where it is not unusual to see touring pros like Xander Schauffele and Neal Shipley utilizing the club for practice. Most striking of all is the on-site club fitter operation, where former TaylorMade team member Mark Carter can custom-build a club to a member’s exact specs while they finish warming up — fitted, assembled, and in hand to test within minutes.
"Rooted in performance, service, and experience, Dutchman’s Pipe sits at the very heart of one of the world's most premier golf markets. Where many clubs seek merely to maintain tradition, we strive to elevate it. Our goal is to define a new standard in golf, creating a sanctuary where members and guests alike can enjoy the finest aspects of the game." - Mark Carter, Head Golf Professional and Director of Club Fitting
Around that core, Dutchman's Pipe is built as a multi-sport retreat. A cutting-edge racquet club brings together tennis, padel, and pickleball, paired with nationally ranked, Top 100 instruction and elevated practice facilities — a range stretching beyond 300 yards and two full acres devoted to the short game. A fitness center, a day spa, personal training, and event spaces round out a wellness-minded campus designed to fill a full day, not just a round.
The food matches the setting. The kitchen is led by Chef Julian Jouhannaud, and the menu has fun with the form: there is, as any great course demands, a hot dog — one the chef perfected, and quite possibly one of the best you will ever eat — alongside a standout turkey club, lobster rolls, and a run of polished bites meant to be savored from the dining room balcony, which looks out over the driving range and the first hole.
Three venues in all, including a members-only grill and poolside al fresco dining, round out the culinary program, with Jouhannaud formerly of Anabel’s in London and Le Bilboquet.
For members who want to stay close to the action, the club offers a private collection of 22 villas just steps from the heart of the grounds, available through Belgrove Villas and positioned for effortless access to golf, racquets, and dining. The villas connect to the adjacent Belgrove Resort & Spa, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel on the same property, knitting the club and resort into a single, seamless retreat in the middle of the city.
The vision belongs to Witkoff Group and Access Industries, with PPG Development, the team behind a new generation of South Florida private clubs that also includes Shell Bay in Hallandale Beach. As West Palm Beach climbs into a new tier of affluence — its waterfront skyline rising, its island neighbors holding the most exclusive zip code in the world — Dutchman's Pipe arrives as a marker of where the city is heading: a private, members-only sanctuary that treats time, space, and the freedom to play whenever you please as the ultimate luxuries.