How will Troon raise the bar at The Club at Hammock Beach?


By: January 8, 2020


Troon earned a very interesting assignment from KDG Capital, the new owners of The Club at Hammock Beach, part of the Hammock Beach Club community in Palm Beach, Fla. ( 30 minutes south of St. Augustine).

Troon Privé, the private club operating division of Troon, will oversee the golf operations, golf shop merchandising, golf course agronomy and club/membership marketing.

The Club at Hammock Beach at sunset

The Club at Hammock Beach features the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course and the Conservatory Course, a Tom Watson Signature Design.

Named a Golf Digest Top 100 Golf Course in 2008 and recently named to Golfweek’s list of Top 100 Resort Courses (No. 88), the Ocean Course has six holes that play along the Atlantic Ocean.

The Ocean Course concludes with a thrilling finale dubbed “The Bear Claw” — a collection of four daunting holes precariously edging the sweeping coastline.

The Conservatory Course is highlighted by waterfalls, streams and veneered field stonework. In addition to the 140 sand and coquina bunkers, Watson also added three sod-faced bunkers, a nod to his affinity for British links-style golf.

The Conservatory was named one of America’s Best New Public Courses when it opened in 2008 by Golf Digest. In October 2019, the adjacent Hammock Beach Resort was named a Top 100 Golf Resort “Best for Families” by GOLF Magazine.

In addition to award-winning golf, Hammock Beach includes a Hydro-grid tennis center overlooking the Intercoastal Waterway, a 91,000 square-foot water park with water slide and lazy river, a full-service spa, a state-of-the-art fitness center, casual and fine dining restaurants, and a marina.

The Club at Hammock Beach at sunset with a superb view of the ocean

How to elevate the service? – my tips

KidZone – to engage the kids

Now let me share with you what I would improve at The Club at Hammock Beach:

I guess you noticed that golf resorts are becoming more and more family-oriented (e.g. La Reserva Club, Sotogrande (Spain); Lumine Mediterránea Beach & Golf Club).

Here we can find a so-called Kids Crew whose task is to entertain the guests’ kids during their stay. But what shall we do between the kids between two programs?

I would create dedicated ‘kids’ space‘ (Playhouse, KidZone) for these children. These spaces should be kid-safe and appeal to a variety of interests.

Conversational marketing

I must admit when I first visited the website of The Club at Hammock Beach I felt lost.

At the same time, we have to understand it is not a simple marketing task to present so many services and offers at this scale.

However, my first impression was that they don’t want to help me and engage with me as a website visitor.

They could facilitate and ease this situation by adding a proper live chat service as I have in my blog.

This could help you to facilitate conversation and engagement with your website visitor and improve the performance of your website.

You can learn much more about their needs and expectations. This is another way to provide personalized services, offers, and solutions to suit their specific needs.

In the US, Facebook Messenger was the most popular messenger app with 106.4 million unique U.S. users in 2019 (Source: Statista.com).

In the last couple of years, the engagement became one of the most important marketing KPIs. What is your most important marketing KPI?

My last recommendation is

Provide a real-time, on-demand buying experience for prospects come to your website and show interest in your golf club’s / resort’s services.