How Tiny Florida Enclave Became a Haven for Rich Golfers—and Their Multimillion-Dollar Megamansions

The eyes of the world’s biggest golf fanatics are focused solely on Augusta, GA, right now as the 2025 Masters Tournament continues to unfold.

But when the competition wraps and a winner is declared, many of the pros taking part will head back to the real golf capital of the U.S.—Jupiter, FL, a small town in Palm Beach County that has become a veritable mecca for the country’s top golfers and their multimillion-dollar fortunes.

The town, which has a population of around 61,000, has long served as an unofficial hub for those golf pros who choose to base themselves in the U.S., with a huge number of major names opting to base themselves there over the years, including Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, and Justin Thomas.

Today, Jupiter is understood to be home to more than a dozen PGA tour pros—many of whom have been drawn to the area by the balmy weather, luxurious housing, and, of course, the extraordinary number of golf courses that seem to be dotted across every square mile of the town.

There are 69 golf courses located within a 15-mile radius of Jupiter, 12 of which are open to the public, while the remainder are located inside private clubs, according to Golf Digest. And that number doesn’t count the miniature courses that some pros, like Woods, 49, have set up inside their enormous estates.

But a bevy of golf courses can be found in numerous parts of Florida—including nearby Palm Beach. So what, exactly, makes Jupiter so appealing to the world’s best players?

Golfweek reports that it was Jack Nicklaus, now 85, who first started the trend, having relocated to Palm Beach County with his wife, Barbara, in 1966, the same year that he won both the Masters and the Open Championship.

The couple helped to boost the town’s golf capital status 30 years later in 1999, when they founded The Bear’s Club, one of the area’s premier private golf clubs.

Over the years, the club has seen an astonishing number of professional golfers sign up for memberships, including Thomas, Johnson, McIlroy, and Patrick Cantlay, all of whom are understood to have turned to Nicklaus for mentorship.

However, while Nicklaus provided a certain cachet to Jupiter’s golf community, there are many other aspects of the community that prove particularly appealing to the pros, according to Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.

“Jupiter offers luxury buyers more bang for their buck than Palm Beach without losing out on proximity to nearby attractions, such as golf courses,” she says.

The median list price per square foot for Jupiter is currently less than a third of the price in Palm Beach, she adds.

“The median listing price per square foot in Jupiter was $457 in March, less than a third the price per square foot in nearby Palm Beach, which clocked in at $1,537 in March,” Jones adds.

Then, of course, there is Florida’s lack of state income tax, which means that professional golfers who live there are able to hold on to more of their prize money than they would if they lived elsewhere, like California or New York.

Many of the biggest golf tournaments in the season offer multimillion-dollar prizes, with The Players Championship topping the list at $25 million in 2025, an extraordinary haul that was claimed by Jupiter resident McIlroy.

Residents could also enjoy further tax relief if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis follows through with his promise to limit or even ban property taxes on the local level in the state.

While Jupiter might be cheaper than Palm Beach, its luxury housing options are nothing to turn your nose up at. There are currently 41 properties listed on Realtor.com with a price of $10 million or more—and the median list price is currently sitting at $800,000.

Meanwhile, the median sale price has more than doubled in the past 20 years, rising from $367,300 in 2005 to $745,200 in January of this year.

Many of the world’s premier golfers who live in the area boast homes that are worth millions more than that median, including Woods, who purchased an enormous 12-acre estate in the area for $40 million in 2006.

He then razed the existing mansion to make way for a custom abode, which he initially shared with his then-wife, Elin Nordegren.

Today, his custom-built mansion is said to be worth upward of $60 million. It’s outfitted with everything he might need, including a golf studio and an expansive putting green out back.

He owns a second property just a few minutes away, which he built for his late mother, Kultida, in 2010. That home was erected on two adjacent lots, which the golfer bought for $1.1 million and $1.3 million in 2007, one year after his father, Earl, died.

Meanwhile McIlroy resides in an enormous mansion within The Bear’s Club community, which he bought in 2017 for $11 million from PGA legend Ernie Els. Today, the home is estimated to be worth more than $18 million, according to Realtor.com.

Golfers are not the only high-profile personalities to reside in Jupiter, which is also home to several members of Donald Trump‘s family, who likely opted to purchase property there because of its proximity to the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Don Jr. owns a $9.7 million mansion there, which he purchased with his former fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, in March 2021, one year after his father left the White House for the first time and declared he was moving his primary residence from New York to the Sunshine State, prompting many of his family members to follow suit.

Eric Trump and his wife, Lara, also keep their primary residence in Jupiter. The sprawling mansion is part of an “exclusive” gated community within the Trump National Golf Club. The couple purchased the home for $3.2 million in 2021. It is now believed to be worth upward of $7.7 million.

Woods’ new girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, ex-wife of Don Jr., is also a Jupiter resident—and her relationship with the golfer is understood to have blossomed as a result of their community connection.

Then there is the next generation of budding golfers in Jupiter: Kai Trump, Don Jr. and Vanessa’s daughter, who is set to play golf at the University of Miami in 2026, and Woods’ son, Charlie.

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