Binks Forest Is Six Neighborhoods Wearing One Golf Course Name

Does buying a home in Binks Forest mean you're also buying into the golf club that gives the neighborhood its name? Most people touring homes here assume the answer is yes, or at least assume the course is some kind of shared amenity that comes with the address. It isn't, and the reason why says more about how this Wellington community actually works than any listing description will tell you.

The Course Behind The Name Isn't The Club You'll Join

The 260-plus acre course that gives Binks Forest its identity opened in 1990 as Binks Forest Golf Club, designed by two-time Major champion Johnny Miller and architect Gene Bates. It made an impression fast: the course hosted a PGA Tour event that same year and was later named one of Golf Digest's Top 75 courses. For a young Wellington community, that was a serious calling card.

Then the course closed in 2002 and sat in disrepair for years. It reopened in 2007 after a renovation led by Bates, but the bigger change came in March 2016, when the property sold to a new ownership group, Doug Marty, Chip Smith, and Andy Apple, who rebranded it Wellington National Golf Club. Marty later bought out Chip Smith's Atlantic Golf Management interest in early 2019, consolidating ownership further. The new owners brought in a general manager with 27 years at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach and expanded the practice facilities, including a driving range that was rebuilt at roughly triple its former size.

So the golf course that anchors Binks Forest hasn't gone by the neighborhood's name in a decade. It's Wellington National now, a private club with its own leadership, its own dining rooms, and its own membership economics that sit entirely outside your HOA dues.

Membership Is A Separate Purchase

This is the part that catches buyers off guard. Wellington National operates as a non-equity private club, meaning members don't buy a stake in the property and there are no mandatory food-and-beverage minimums forcing you to spend a set amount at the clubhouse each quarter. That's a genuine advantage compared to equity clubs elsewhere in Palm Beach County, where surprise capital assessments can land on members with little warning.

But non-equity doesn't mean no cost. The club's own site lists an Executive membership with unlimited access to the 18-hole course, the driving range, the simulator, the pool, the gym, and the dining rooms, extending to a spouse and children under 23. There's also a Social membership, which covers the Wine Bar Restaurant, Champions Bistro, the pool, and the fitness center, plus up to two rounds of golf a month rather than unlimited play. Third-party golf membership aggregators reported earlier in 2026 that initiation fees for full golf membership run in the $10,000 to $25,000 range, with annual dues somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. Those figures move with club policy and aren't something a buyer should treat as fixed, but the range gives you a real sense of what "golf community" actually costs beyond the price of the house.

If you're comparing Binks Forest to a bundled-amenity community where club access rides along with the HOA fee, you're comparing two different financial models. Here, the course and the neighborhood are legally and financially separate entities that happen to share a fence line.

Six Neighborhoods, One Umbrella Name

The other thing "Binks Forest" glosses over is that it isn't one neighborhood. It's six, built by five different companies across three decades, and they don't share a price range or a homeowner experience.

Prices move accordingly. A 1,692-square-foot Brindlewood home built in 1995 recently listed around $550,000, while another Binks Forest listing, a five-bedroom home sitting on the golf course's 9th hole, was repriced to $875,000 after a recent appraisal. Active listings across the broader Binks Forest of the Landings HOA averaged $941,833 as of June 2026, a figure that reflects the mix of small starter homes and larger golf-view estates being marketed together under one umbrella. If a listing agent quotes you a single median for "Binks Forest," ask which of the six sub-communities it's pulling from. The answer changes the number substantially.

It's also worth watching for the phrase "zoned for Binks Forest schools" on listings for nearby communities like Meadow Wood, which aren't among the six official HOA subdivisions but market themselves under the same school-district halo. A $3.98 million estate on a corner lot can carry that language honestly while sitting entirely outside the neighborhood most people picture when they hear the name.

The Driving Range Nobody Mentions

Binks Pointe deserves its own explanation, because its origin story is the clearest example of how this community's golf identity has been reshaped over time.

In August 2014, Wellington's Planning, Zoning & Adjustment Board approved a master plan amendment allowing 90 townhouses to be built on a 15.27-acre parcel known as Pod L, land that had previously been the golf course's driving range. The approval traced back to a 2004 agreement tied to the course's earlier renovation and reopening. Board members weren't unanimous on the details. One member pushed back on the project's price point, worried it would draw investors buying units to rent rather than families moving in.

"How do we have some sort of relief so that we don't have a bunch of investors buying it?"

The developer's representative agreed to add rental restrictions, and the board approved the changes unanimously with a one-year restriction attached. Binks Pointe was completed between 2017 and 2022, and today its residents enjoy their own clubhouse, pool, and putting green, separate from Wellington National, on land that used to send golf balls flying toward what is now someone's driveway.

What This Means If You're Comparing Homes Here

The practical takeaway is simple: don't let "golf course community" do your due diligence for you. Ask which sub-community a listing sits in, whether the lot actually borders Wellington National's active course or a repurposed parcel like Binks Pointe, and whether the seller currently holds a club membership that would need to transfer or lapse at closing. None of that shows up on a listing sheet, and none of it is optional information if golf access is part of why you're looking here.

Does buying a home in Binks Forest include membership at the golf club? No. Wellington National Golf Club operates independently of the neighborhood's HOAs, with its own initiation fees and annual dues.

Is the golf course still called Binks Forest Golf Club anywhere? Not officially. It's been Wellington National Golf Club since the March 2016 sale, though the older name still shows up on some third-party sites and older listing descriptions.

Are all six sub-communities zoned to the same schools? Yes, Binks Forest Elementary, Wellington Landings Middle, and Wellington Community High cover the neighborhood, though buyers should confirm current boundaries with the Palm Beach County School District before assuming.

If you're weighing a specific sub-community, a specific lot type, or trying to figure out what a club membership would actually add to your monthly budget, Jeanne Gordon has spent decades tracking exactly this kind of neighborhood-level detail across Wellington. Reach out to walk a Binks Forest property with someone who can tell you which fence line you're actually buying next to.