Fresh Take On Leisure and Sports

Beachside renovations, high-tech golf and blue-chip tennis service elevate The Boca Raton’s sports and leisure profile.

The Boca Raton is lavishing extra-special care to one of its most important natural assets: the beach. A half-mile long, the private beach will undergo a nearly $100 million renovation and debut a new layout in December 2024.

The beach will be fully reimagined, says Daniel Hostettler, the property’s President & CEO. “The beach will be fully reimagined,” Hostettler says. “Since The Boca Raton Beach Club is positioned around the beach, we felt it was time to make it a five-star experience.”

Designed to be family-friendly and elevated, with a St. Barth-style design, the renovation includes daily grooming of the sand, as well as bifurcating the beach into a space for Club members and a separate area for resort guests. At the center of the beach, a gaming area will offer various options, including sand volleyball courts, beach Jenga and a play section. The beach will continue to feature watersports and activities, such as Hobie Cats, boogie board rentals and more.

Adding to the existing cabana collection at the pool will be the introduction of luxury cabanas on the beach. The 10 new bi-level beach cabanas are raised on stilts with daybeds and chaise lounges.

A new beach food and beverage operation will be able to effectively and efficiently service 1,000 lounge chairs (versus today’s infrastructure that allows for 600-700 chairs). A new menu will focus on Latin American-inspired fare, complete with an array of healthy and delicious taco, ceviche and margarita options by Chef Gonzalo Rivera, protégé of famed chef Michael Mina. “We realized that the entire impetus in coming here for a visit is the beach,” Hostettler says. “It has just surely evolved over the years, and now it’s going to become a phenomenal beach experience.”

Golf Goes Virtual

Imagine being able to see your golf ball’s trajectory within nanoseconds of hitting the ball. The opportunity to view the actual curvature and path are mind-blowing possibilities thanks to the advancement of Toptracer, technology that tracks golf shots and projects the trajectory and a slew of other statistics onto a screen.

Initially accessible to television viewers who were cheering on their favorite golfer on the screen, Toptracer has now become a coveted tool at select courses around the globe. For golfers and non-golfers alike, Toptracer has been a ubiquitous part of televised golf for years. The thin blue line that appears on the television screen once a golfer hits a ball has become a necessary instrument to enhance the viewing experience. And now that same technology is available to players at The Boca Raton, which features 18 hitting stations and 18 consoles. With state-of-the-art, cutting-edge graphics that use multiple cameras, players can monitor and assess their shots, plus play games and golf with friends both in person and virtually.

Game, Set and Match

The sport of tennis has found its match at The Boca Raton. Home to 16 fast-drying HydroGrid courts and a roster of dedicated tennis pros, The Boca Raton Racquet Club serves the serious player, and also nurtures the next wave of tennis stars.

With a full-service concierge team that is equipped to arrange games, private lessons and court reservations, tennis players—both members and guests alike—have little to worry about other than the enjoyment of the sport itself. For visitors, the concierge team can even plan a tennis vacation based on a guest’s skill level, interest and the amount of tennis he or she wants to play, says Erik Silver, the director of tennis.

It should come as no surprise that The Boca Raton takes tennis seriously; after all, it has a history of elite names on the property’s courts, including the legendary Fred Perry, winner of the first career grand slam, as the club’s first director of tennis.

In addition, Silver and his team have created adult and junior programming for ages 3 and up, and have created social events centered around tennis, including monthly round-robin play and holiday special events like Valentine’s Day. Adding to the slate of racquet offerings are four courts and three pros dedicated to pickleball, a sport Silver notes has exploded in popularity over the years. “Our goal is to get everybody playing who wants to play,” says Silver.