January 19th, 2008
Where golf is life. . - Executive Travel: PGA National Resort & Spa, Palm Beach Gardens - hotel review
True, the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens has plenty of attractions besides golf. But if you’re hooked on the game, then this place is paradise.
Dr. Rick Jensen is warming up to his subject, “Essentials of Champions: Business Lessons Learned from the World’s Greatest Athletes.” He is delivering his message to a dozen executives who have come to the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens to learn how to become more effective in business. They are learning this through the practice of golf.
“What is it that people do in their business to dominate?” Jensen asks the group. “People who dominate are masters of the essentials,” he answers for them. It’s the same with professional athletes. “What people do in professional sports is what top CEOs do to succeed,” Jensen tells them. “The process is the same.”
This is music to the ears of the executives who have come to the PGA National to learn the principals of high performance on the job — and to improve their golf game at the same time. “In my business consulting I always use sports analogies,” says Jensen, a hybrid sports psychologist/business management guru. “I use golf as a platform to discuss business enhancement.”
Jensen runs his clinic for corporations which typically enroll eight to 12 executives for a three-day seminar. With help from resort golf pro Charlie King and health club director Randy Myers, the course includes liberal amounts of actual golf instruction to illustrate its principals. “Most groups think it’s way cool to come and play golf and learn from guys who teach the pros’ says Jensen. “But I use it to teach them about their businesses.”
Jensen’s course is an example of how the PGA National Resort & Spa is leveraging its core attraction of golf to broaden its appeal. Ten years ago, the spa was added to lure spouses who might not he crazy about golfing. It was an instant hit, and has since evolved into a charming complex of 31 treatment rooms with 120 therapists and a unique Waters of the World area where pools duplicate the therapeutic H20 of places like the Dead Sea in Israel and the Sales de Beam in France.
The PGA National has another six regular swimming pools, a 19-court tennis compound, a 34,000-square-foot gymnasium/health club, ballrooms for corporate meetings and an eye-opening array of wildlife on its grounds. For years it was also the headquarters of the US Croquet Association; until three years ago, the resort’s five professional-quality croquet courts (still open) represented the highest concentration of such courts in the Western Hemisphere.
While such amenities give the PGA National an allure well beyond the smacking of a small white ball, golf is still king. Four golf courses emanate from the hotel complex, with a fifth nearby. The Academy of Golf at PGA National is adjacent to the hotel, with fields of training greens, fairways and bunkers. And although the resort itself is not owned by the Professional Golf Association — it’s the creation of Palm Beach Gardens developer Llywd Ecclestone — the grounds house the official headquarters of the PGA. Basically, this is golf heaven.
“There was nothing out here when we started,” says Ecelestone, a modest man who developed significant parts of Palm Beach Gardens. “The PGA thought I was crazy coming west of the Florida Turnpike. But this is where the land was.”
Twenty years later, the PGA National is a 339-room resort that is AAA four-diamond rated, an Exxon Mobil Four Star award winner, and a Zagat ’s top-five hotel in Palm Beach County. It recently underwent a $12 million renovation, including the restoration of its famed Champion golf course.
“The Champ” was restored by the Nicklaus Design Team under the direction of the famous golfer’s son, Jack Nicklaus II. At a January press conference to officially reopen the course, local officials took the podium to thank Ecclestone for his contributions to Palm Beach Gardens. When the younger Nicklaus got to the microphone, he referred to him as Mr. Ecclestone.
“I’m unable to call him Llywd,” Nicklaus told the audience. “I grew up down the street from Mr. Ecciestone [in Palm Beach Gardens], so I’ve known him since I was a kid. He’s always been Mr. Ecclestone to me.”