Lost Tree Village

The Lost Tree Club course opened for play in 1962, designed by Mark Mahannah. In 2002, the club undertook a complete $6.5 million restoration and redesign, with Jack Nicklaus donating his own design expertise to direct the project alongside Kipp Schulties Golf Design, who executed the construction over the summer of 2002. The result is an 18-hole, par-72 championship layout playing 6,749 yards across roughly 150 acres within the larger 450-acre community — a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course. The course is private and serves Village residents and their guests exclusively; there is no public or outside-member play, and it is not part of any reciprocal or destination golf program.

Buying a home in Lost Tree Village does not, by itself, make you a member of Lost Tree Club — but it is a prerequisite. Residency is required before you can even apply: prospective members cannot begin the golf or social membership application process until after closing on a Village residence. From there, admission is by invitation and sponsorship, not automatic. Most sourcing describes a requirement of two sponsoring members who have known the candidate socially for two or more years, plus four reference letters, though at least one source describes a five-sponsor requirement — this discrepancy should be confirmed directly with the club. Membership itself is optional for residents, not mandatory: every homeowner is a member of the Lost Tree Village Property Owners Association (POA), which is a separate entity from the club and covers community-wide costs like security and road maintenance, while joining the golf or social club is a separate, elective step layered on top. In practice, because Lost Tree Club membership is available only to Village residents and nowhere else, it functions as a closed, two-tier system: residency opens the door, but sponsorship and invitation are still required to walk through it. Membership tiers include Golf, Social, and Limited categories, each with different levels of access to the club's Beach House, Golf Clubhouse, and Pelican House facilities.

Lost Tree Village is fully gated and guard-secured, with 570 residences built between 1963 and 2008 across three broad types: single-family estate homes (ranging roughly from 1,476 to over 10,600 square feet, two to nine bedrooms), golf-course cottages, and oceanfront condominiums (roughly 1,310 to 2,845 square feet, two to six bedrooms). The community sits directly on both the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, so homesites vary meaningfully by position — golf-course frontage, Intracoastal/marina-side, or oceanfront — which is a major driver of price. Governance is split between two entities: the Lost Tree Village Property Owners Association (POA), which every homeowner belongs to and which funds community-wide services, and Lost Tree Club, the separate, optional golf and social club. The two are administratively distinct even though the golf course physically runs through the community.

Club facilities are spread across several distinct venues rather than a single clubhouse: the Golf Clubhouse; the oceanfront Beach House on Lost Tree's private Atlantic beach, with a dining room, outdoor bar, poolside dining, and its own tennis courts; and the Pelican House (sometimes called the Pelican Club), overlooking Lake Worth/the Intracoastal and used for community events. A dedicated wellness facility (referred to as "Court 10" in club materials) provides fitness amenities. Reported sports facilities include eight Har-Tru tennis courts sited to catch the ocean breeze, pickleball courts, a basketball court, and shuffleboard, in addition to the golf course itself — though the pickleball/basketball/shuffleboard detail comes from a single aggregator source and is lower-confidence than the rest. A non-denominational chapel on the property holds Sunday services from November through May and hosts weddings and baptisms. The community's Intracoastal frontage supports private boating/marina access for waterfront homeowners, though specific slip availability was not independently confirmed.

Lost Tree Village sits in North Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, directly on the Atlantic coast between the ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. It is a short drive from Palm Beach International Airport and from the Palm Beach Gardens/Jupiter golf corridor, which includes several other private clubs researched by US Golf Living: BallenIsles Country Club, Old Palm Golf Club, and Mirasol Country Club to the west in Palm Beach Gardens, and Admirals Cove and Jonathan's Landing to the north in Jupiter. Seminole Golf Club — one of the most exclusive courses in the United States — sits a few miles north along the same barrier-island golf corridor in Juno Beach; like Lost Tree, it does not offer membership access through residential purchase, and the two are often discussed together as the region's most discreet, least publicized private clubs.