This Private Bahamas Island Club Just Unveiled a $350 Million Transformation — With a 40,000-Square-Foot Putting Course
Southworth is pouring one of the Caribbean's largest private-club investments into a 500-acre property on Great Abaco, with new residences, racquet facilities, and a spa still on the way.
The Bahamas' most private golf-and-beach retreat is getting one of the biggest makeovers in the region. Southworth announced a $350 million transformation of The Abaco Club at Winding Bay on Great Abaco, a 500-acre oceanfront community that has quietly been rebuilding itself into a full-scale luxury resort experience rather than just a residential club.
The investment is already visible on the ground. The signature clifftop fine-dining room, Cliff House, has been refreshed with new interiors and a seasonally driven menu. The Stables now anchors the club's racquet and casual dining scene, with four new tennis courts, four padel courts, and a new Horseshoe bar.
The headline recreational addition is El Diablo, a 40,000-square-foot, 18-hole putting course designed by PGA Tour Champion and club ambassador Darren Clarke. That sits inside a larger recreation zone that now also includes a playing field, a playground, and a 50,000-square-foot fishing pond.
Real estate is carrying much of the investment. A new Cays Reserve neighborhood is introducing 19 beachfront residences priced from $4.15 million, and the first 11 have already sold. Those sales come on top of several other new residential pockets the club is opening as an entry point to membership.
Still to come is a new spa built around individual treatment pavilions with mindfulness programming, an expanded fitness center with additional group studios, and a dedicated hub for the club's Kid's Club offerings. Day-to-day, The Abaco Club still leans on what originally put it on the map — a top-ranked oceanfront golf course, private boating and fishing out of Winding Bay, snorkeling, and a farm-to-table dining program fed by the club's own hydroponic farm.
For Great Abaco, an island still rebuilding parts of its tourism economy after Hurricane Dorian, the scale of the investment is a meaningful vote of confidence. For the Caribbean private-club world, it's one of the largest single-property commitments in recent memory.