I T ’ S D I N N E R T I M E I N J U P I T E R , F L A . , A N D 1 0 0 0 N O R T H I S T H E P L A C E T O B E . T H E R E S TA U R A N T O P E N E D I N 2 0 1 8 A N D I M M E D I AT E LY B E C A M E A N E X U S O F G E R M A N E N G I N E E R I N G , I TA L I A N TA I L O R I N G A N D S O U T H B E A C H P L A S T I C S U R G E R Y. Jutting into the Loxahatchee River is a private dock so that diners can arrive in style; Dustin Johnson has been known to cruise up in his 82foot Viking. (The lounge upstairs, available only to the 300 members who pay $4,000 to join and $4,000 in annual dues, carries Fireball cinnamon whisky to whet the whistle of Johnson and his glamorous fiancee, Paulina Gretzky.) Michael Jordan gets a lot of attention for being a part owner, but the man behind the man is Ira Fenton, a low-key powerbroker who helped finance Jack Nicklaus’ The Bear’s Club across town. That private golf club has about three dozen elite tour pros as members, and its popularity helped inspire 1000 NORTH when Fenton sought to replicate the clubby atmosphere and first-rate service of The Bear’s Club. “If you put together a tournament with just our restaurant’s investors, you’d have a very strong field,” Fenton said recently over a decadent meal, interrupting himself often to greet by name the servers and hosts, all of whom had the fresh-scrubbed good looks of Abercrombie models. Those investors include Johnson, Ernie Els, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Luke Donald, Keegan Bradley and Camilo Villegas. “It’s a fun thing to be a part of,” Bradley says, “and it guarantees you can get a table on a Friday night, which is getting harder these days.” Jupiter’s popularity has solidified its stand-
1. Brooks Koepka 2. Debbie Terlato 3. Bill Terlato 4. Sherrye Fenton 5. Ira Fenton 6. Rory McIlroy 7. Padma Mantena 8. Raj Mantena 9. Ernie Els 10. Liezl Els 11. Tucker Frederickson 12. Ahmad Rashad 13. Jena Sims
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ing as the centre of the golf universe. Educated guesses place the number of pro golfers of varying status in the area at five dozen. Set to join them is the consummate California dude, Phil Mickelson, who bought a place on Jupiter Island, where he and wife Amy will feather their empty nest (and enjoy the benefits of no state income tax, which Phil has long desired). When Jordan wanted to create his private 18hole fiefdom, the Jupiter area was the only place he considered. The result is Grove XXIII, which opened in 2019 and is already the gathering spot for stars from various sports who indulge in jocular money games and other rituals of malebonding. Grove is in horse country about 15 miles from The Bear’s Club, farther north than was once considered fashionable. But its mystique helped inspire Steve Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, to purchase 1,200 nearby acres, on which he is reputedly planning to build three private courses. It’s a good bet, given that every club in town has a long waiting list, and in the COVID era, well-heeled northerners continue to arrive in droves. The Wall Street Journal reported that Palm Beach, half an hour to the south, has had 35 homes sell for at least $30 million since March 2020, with two eclipsing $100 million. Jupiter, which has not one but three tiki bars clustered around its iconic lighthouse, is beachier than Palm Beach, which Luke Donald describes as “more old money, more swanky, more stuffy.” But with almost no available inventory, the high-end home prices around Jupiter have similarly spiked; Greg Norman sold Tranquility, his eight-acre spread on Jupiter Island, for $55 million. (The season in South Florida used to be October through April, but many new arrivals are staying year-round, beating the summer heat by playing golf early in the morning.) North Palm Beach is home to venerable Seminole, but that’s not a place where tour players hang out. Old-timers Ray Floyd and Nick Price are the only pro golfers among the membership. In Jupiter, The Bear’s Club has long been a popular spot, with many tour pros living on the premises. In 2017, Rory McIlroy bought Ernie Els’ 13,000-square-foot house for low eight figures and then did an extensive remodel. The practice facility at The Bear’s Club is legendary, with each pro enjoying buckets of his or her preferred model of golf ball, which are meticulously sorted by the staff. Nicklaus recently reworked the par-3 course. “You can tell when a big tournament is coming because the range is packed,” says Jessica Korda, one of a dozen or so LPGA Tour players who make their home around Jupiter and often practice side by side with the guys. If The Bear’s Club is where players go to work on their game, Medalist is the place to test themselves against each other. DJ and Rickie are regulars, and it was Tiger Woods’
