Drive along Corso Mediterra Circle this month and the South Course does not look like a golf course. Fairways are stripped to bare earth. Greens are outlined in string and stakes rather than turf. Cart paths dead-end at construction fencing. If you did not already know Mediterra was in the middle of a planned reconstruction, you would assume something had gone badly wrong.
Nothing has gone wrong. This is the plan working exactly as intended, and it is the second time in about a decade that Mediterra has done something like it.
What is actually happening on the South Course
Construction on the South Course's full reconstruction began in June 2026, and the scope is not cosmetic. The project covers a complete renovation of every green complex, a reshaping of greenside and fairway bunkers, and a full regrassing of fairways and rough. The work is being guided by an evaluation conducted jointly with the United States Golf Association and the Fazio Group, the same firm that designed the South Course originally, and it is being built by Leibold Irrigation and Construction Company.
Club COO and general manager Carmen Mauceri framed it as more than routine upkeep, calling it a deliberate investment meant to keep the course performing at the level members expect for years to come. That framing matters, because it explains why the club chose to close an entire 18 holes rather than patch problem areas piecemeal. A staged, hole-by-hole renovation would have kept more of the course open longer, but it also would have dragged the disruption out over multiple seasons instead of concentrating it into one summer.
The math nobody mentions: one course, twice the golfers
Here is the detail that actually affects your calendar this year. Mediterra's golf membership has historically been structured around 225 golfers per 18-hole course, for a combined cap of 450 across the North and South layouts. That ratio is what keeps tee sheets manageable in a normal year.
This is not a normal year. With the South Course offline for reconstruction, the North Course is absorbing golf traffic that would ordinarily be split between two courses. If you have noticed tee times harder to book this fall than in past seasons, that is not a scheduling glitch. It is simple arithmetic: the same membership base, one course instead of two.
This is not the first time Mediterra has done this
If the current construction feels familiar, it should. Mediterra ran a similar overhaul of both the North and South courses between 2015 and 2017, a project that members approved for roughly $14 million and that grew to nearly $17 million by completion. That renovation replaced irrigation systems, rebuilt bunkers, and regrassed both courses in Platinum TE seashore paspalum. Crucially, it was also done in phases timed to the slower summer months, the same scheduling logic behind this year's South Course work.
There is a financing pattern worth knowing too. The 2015-2017 golf course renovation was funded through a member assessment, a direct vote and direct cost to the membership because golf infrastructure is expensive and long-lived. By contrast, the clubhouse and amenity work that happened in between, the 2008 addition of The Tavern, the 2013 Grille Room updates, the 2016 tennis and bocce court expansions, and the more recent Beach Club refresh, was funded out of the club's reserves rather than a special assessment. Golf gets voted on. Everything else gets absorbed into the operating plan. That distinction tells you something real about how a member-owned club like Mediterra prioritizes capital spending, and it is the kind of detail you will not find on an amenities brochure.
Line up the projects chronologically and a decade-long rhythm emerges: major golf work in 2015-2017, clubhouse and Tavern expansion in the years after, a Beach Club renovation more recently, and now, in 2026, a return to the golf courses paired with an entirely new building. Mediterra does not renovate constantly. It reinvests in cycles, and this summer happens to be the golf course's turn again.
The second project running at the same time
While the South Course reconstruction gets the visible attention, because it is impossible to miss from the road, a second capital project has been quietly moving through its early phases nearby. The Club at Mediterra is also building a new Sports & Lifestyle Center, and as of this summer it is in the structural framing stage: foundational slab pours are complete, vertical steel is going up, and framing has begun on the building's second floor. The project is being built by the commercial contractor BUILD, with architecture by David Corban Architects, and it is expected to open in 2027.
The new building will run more than 30,000 square feet and add dedicated studios for Pilates, spin, yoga, and other group fitness formats, along with expanded locker rooms. Mark Wilson, president and CEO of London Bay Homes, which handles new-construction sales at Mediterra, described the broader push as leadership and members investing in amenities that raise the everyday experience of living there.
Here is the part that should reassure anyone worried this is a second closure on top of the first: because the Sports & Lifestyle Center is new construction rather than a renovation of an existing building, the current fitness center, pools, and clubhouse dining rooms stay fully operational throughout. The golf course had to close because you cannot rebuild greens underneath golfers. The gym does not have that problem, because the new one is rising on its own footprint while the old one keeps running.
What is actually open this season
For anyone planning their fall and winter around the club, here is where things stand right now:
- North Course: fully open and carrying the club's golf traffic while the South Course is under construction
- The Tavern on 18: open for dining and drinks, unaffected by the golf course work
- Beach Club on Little Hickory Island: open, following its earlier renovation
- Tennis, pickleball, and bocce: all operating on their existing courts, eight Har-Tru tennis courts and seven pickleball courts among them
- Existing fitness center and pools: open and unaffected by the Sports & Lifestyle Center's construction, since that project is a new building rather than a renovation of current space
If you golf regularly, the practical move this season is booking North Course tee times further ahead than you might have in past years, particularly during peak morning windows. If you are more of a Tavern-and-tennis household, you will barely notice either project is underway.
What this really tells you about Mediterra
The easy read on all this construction is inconvenience: a course closed, cranes near the fitness center, fencing where there used to be fairway. The more accurate read, once you look at how the club has handled capital projects over the past decade, is discipline. Mediterra does not let its golf courses or amenities age quietly into mediocrity. It reinvests on a schedule, funds the big-ticket golf work through direct member approval, absorbs the amenity upgrades into reserves, and times the disruptive parts for the calendar's quietest months. The South Course will reopen rebuilt to a standard the club has committed to maintaining for the next decade. The Sports & Lifestyle Center will open in 2027 as a genuinely new facility, not a patched-up version of the old one. Neither project happened by accident, and neither is likely to be the last.
If you live at Mediterra, you already know this rhythm, even if you had not put the last ten years together the way it lays out here. If you are watching from outside and wondering what makes a club like this hold its ranking year after year, the answer is on full display in the dirt behind the South Course fencing right now.
Have questions about how the club's current projects might affect your own plans at Mediterra, whether you are settling in for the season or just want a neighbor's read on what is happening behind the gates? Linda Kennedy lives and works in Naples and is always glad to talk Mediterra specifics. Let's Connect.
