The Peninsula on the Indian River Bay (Millsboro, DE)

The Peninsula's 18-hole course, which opened in 2006, was Jack Nicklaus's first private-project design in Delaware and remains the only Nicklaus Signature course in the state's private-golf-community landscape. The course plays through the community's peninsula setting along the Indian River Bay. Troon, one of the largest golf-course-management companies in the country, operates the club, which gives Reserve-tier members reduced-rate reciprocal access to other Troon-managed courses nationally — a real, if secondary, perk of the top membership tier.

Access here is genuinely restricted rather than open: The Peninsula's own materials state that club membership is available only to property owners, sold in three tiers. Social membership does not include the golf course; Sports membership adds tennis-court and golf-course access with tee times bookable up to 180 days out (after noon) or 6 days out (before noon); Reserve membership (capped at 350 memberships) adds no practice-facility or green fees, 30-day advance booking for before-noon tee times, and reduced-rate play at other Troon properties. Buying a home at The Peninsula does not, by itself, hand a buyer a golf membership — it only makes the buyer eligible to purchase one, and which tier (if any) is effectively required alongside standard HOA dues is a genuinely unresolved question in the sourcing reviewed this session (see buyer_notes). Vacation-rental owners under the Sports tier can also make club amenities available to their renters for a separate resort amenity fee.

The Peninsula is organized as a large, gated master-planned community governed by the Peninsula Community Association (PCA), with a real mix of housing product — custom single-family homes and homesites, townhomes, villas, and condominiums — built out since 2003 by Schell Brothers and Echelon Custom Homes. Community-wide real-estate marketing describes the eventual buildout as spanning multiple distinct 'neighborhoods,' but this session could not independently confirm a specific neighborhood count or total unit-count figure from a first-party developer or PCA source, so those specific numbers are treated as unverified marketing claims rather than confirmed facts (see buyer_notes and verification_items).

Beyond golf, the amenity package is unusually large for a Delaware community: multiple pools, a wave-lagoon water feature with a man-made sand beach, a private bay beach, a high-end athletic club and spa, and a professional-grade tennis and pickleball complex, all inside a 24/7-gated perimeter. The adjacent 225-acre nature preserve adds hiking/boardwalk trails distinct from the golf course itself.

The Peninsula sits on a peninsula of land between the Indian River Bay and Millsboro/Long Neck, a short drive inland from the Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach resort strip on the Atlantic coast — close enough for regular beach trips without being a beachfront property itself.