Golfer Mark Lye’s Talis Park home is heading to auction next month

Naples

Professional golfer and Golf Channel analyst Mark Lye is sending his Talis Park home in North Naples to auction next month.

The contemporary five-bedroom home was custom-built in 2015 and was intended to be a forever home for the Lye family.

“The home in Talis Park was supposed to last us forever,” said Lye, who joined the PGA Tour in 1977 and played for 18 years.

PGA golfer Mark Lye’s Talis Park home in North Naples has sold just days before going up for auction. The five-bedroom home was last on the market for $2.9 million.

After only nine months of living in the exclusive gated community, Lye and his wife decided to move closer to downtown Naples, in the Isles of Collier Preserves community, to be closer to their children’s school.

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“We were driving south way too much,” Lye said. “We said, 'You know, this is crazy. We are driving down twice, and sometimes even three times, a day.' ”

Lye’s children, who are 11 and 13 years old, are also very involved in extracurricular activities like theater and baseball that practice in East Naples, so the move was a no-brainer.

But selling his home in Talis Park has been a challenge.

“The reason we put it on the market with the auction company is because the realtors have not been able to do the job,” Lye said. “I have been waiting for two years for this thing to sell and I am tired of it.”

The 4,575-square-foot home at 16763 Prato Way in the exclusive gated community has been on and off the market for the past two years and was most recently listed in May for $2.9 million.

“We had an offer and a contract within two months (of listing the home),” Lye said. “The guy started waffling. … He said he didn’t know if he could close and if he needed the house.”

Lye then decided to hire Elite Auctions, a Naples-based company licensed in 38 states, to auction his home.

The single-story, luxury home sits directly on the golf course designed by golf champion Greg Norman and course designer Pete Dye. It will go to auction on Aug. 18 at 11 a.m.

“It literally is a brand-new house and was only lived in for a very short time,” Lye said. “There are no issues with the house.”

Features of the home, built by Curtis Gunther, who owns Imperial Homes of Naples, include four and a half bathrooms, a covered outdoor kitchen, two two-car garages; two home offices, a 40-foot pool, a large great room and a fireplace.

PGA golfer Mark Lye’s Talis Park home in North Naples will be up for auction in August. The five-bedroom home was last on the market for $2.9 million.

“This is a fantastic opportunity in Talis Park, and it’s just a couple houses up from Rocco Mediate's former home,” said Randy Haddaway, CEO of Elite Auctions, who started the company in 2012.

In May, Elite Auctions also sold fellow pro golfer Mediate’s Talis Park home for $2.5 million just days before going to auction.

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“About 60 percent of our properties don’t make it to auction based on the interest we generate through our marketing programs,” Haddaway said.

“What I’m hoping happens is I hope we get some offers before it goes to auction,” Lye said. “When you go to auction, it gets very scary.”

Elite Auctions has seen a lot of success auctioning luxury homes belonging to celebrities and famous athletes, Haddaway said.

Former baseball star Mark Teixeira auctioned his Dallas home with Elite Auctions in May, as did crystal heiress Vanessa Swarovski.

“I’m getting ready to retire soon. I have two homes,” Lye said. “I know what I need to get out of the house, and the auction company is confident I will achieve a number I am comfortable with.”

Lye, currently a radio analyst for Sirius XM, is known for his one-stroke victory over John Mahaffey, Sammy Rachels and Jim Thorpe during the Bank of Boston Classic in 1983.

He was an analyst for The Golf Channel for 18 years and also made an appearance in the 1996 movie “Happy Gilmore,” where he is seen at a cocktail party shaking hands with the character Happy, played by Adam Sandler, and welcoming him to the tour.