Craig Nofzinger grew up in Ohio where golf season had a start date and an end date.
He and his wife, Terry, spent 42 years in Richmond, Virginia, where they eventually retired. As retirement got closer, Craig found himself thinking more and more about a Florida year-round golf season.
So, in 2018, he and his wife Terry began looking at homes in Florida—and for a course with great golf.
Finding the right home is one thing. Finding the right club is another, especially when most clubs keep their membership costs and availability close to the vest.
"It's sort of like picking a church," Craig said. "You see the building, but you don’t know what is inside yet."
So Craig turned to Golf Life Navigators, a service that helps golfers find private clubs that fit what they're looking for.
"They had an inside track to all of it," he said. "They knew exactly what was available, the different membership levels, and the costs associated."
For over six years, Craig and Terry evaluated more than a dozen communities, mostly off the Gulf Coast, narrowing the list as they went.
But by 2024, those Gulf-side clubs became less appealing. "It wasn't just that the membership initiations were doubling," Craig said. "Now I was on a five- to seven-year wait list to get a membership, and at my age, I didn't want to wait five to seven years to play golf."
On a tip from friends, Craig shifted his search to Florida's east coast, and Vero Beach delivered the quieter, small-town feel he and Terry had been chasing the whole time.
It only took one visit for Craig to know Bent Pine was different.
"The people there are really just super nice and very inviting," he said. "Low-key, just down to earth. We really felt comfortable."
A friend put him in touch with a member, who invited him out for a round of golf. Afterward, Craig joined a few members for lunch at the club, and the afternoon felt less like a tour and more like catching up with old friends.
"The guys that I played with that first round are still our best friends at Bent Pine," Craig shared.
Terry isn't a big golfer herself, but she's spent enough time riding along in a cart to know the course is beautiful.
"It's so serene," she said. "It's not like you see houses everywhere up and down the golf course. At a couple of the golf courses we've belonged to, there were homes all the way around, which kind of takes away from that peaceful, park-like feeling. It's just a beautiful course, and it's well-manicured."
The most important part for Terry is the community.
"It's the people," she said. "The people are just wonderful. Everybody we've met there has been so nice and inviting."
Craig plays in organized groups on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings, where a commissioner sets the pairings and no one has to arrange a game on their own. With a membership under 300 members, Bent Pine offers time on the course instead of a waiting list.
Since they settled in Vero Beach, Terry's sister and brother-in-law have relocated permanently from northwest Ohio to the same area, drawn in part by what Craig and Terry found there.
A dozen clubs and two coasts later, Craig and Terry found a place that finally feels like theirs. For anyone still searching for that same fit, Bent Pine is ready for you.