Destin / Sandestin / Miramar Beach Golf Living Guide

Burnt Pine is Sandestin's most exclusive address: a gated community of ten distinct custom-home neighborhoods (developed through the 1990s) built around a Rees Jones championship course that opened in 1994, protected by two layers of security (Sandestin's resort-wide gate plus Burnt Pine's own private entrance and patrol). Membership tiers include full resident, non-resident, sports, social, executive, and associate categories. Kelly Plantation, by contrast, is a public-access semi-private course -- anyone can book a tee time -- with optional membership available to residents and non-residents alike; its design pedigree (Fred Couples and Gene Bates) and Choctawhatchee Bay setting give it real character without the gated-club barrier to entry that defines Burnt Pine.

At Burnt Pine, membership is application-based and separate from home purchase even within the gated enclave itself; published initiation-fee figures conflict across sources (one directory cites roughly $10,001-$25,000, another cites $10,000 for social/$30,000 for golf), and neither was confirmed against an official Sandestin rate schedule. At Kelly Plantation, the community's own HOA FAQ confirms golf membership is not included in HOA dues and the course remains open to the public regardless of membership status -- a meaningfully different, lower-barrier access model than Burnt Pine's gated private club.

Burnt Pine homes are predominantly larger custom and estate properties on golf or lake settings, spanning architectural styles from Mediterranean villas to contemporary Hollywood-Hills-inspired designs; no reliable price range or HOA fee figure was found this session. Kelly Plantation homes sit along the golf course on the site of a former turpentine plantation; similarly, no reliable price range, HOA fee, or gated status was confirmed for the community this session -- both remain items for a buyer to verify directly.