PGA National, Boca Raton: Why US Golf Resorts Bet Big on Pickleball

In the United States, pickleball is no longer a passing trend confined to municipal parks or urban paddle clubs. It is rewriting the map of the country's most prestigious country clubs and golf resorts. When PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens and The Boca Raton Club in Florida — two pillars of North American golf history — open dedicated pickleball facilities side by side for their members, the signal goes far beyond a fad: it confirms a deep mutation of the high-end sport-leisure industry.

As The Pickleball Clinic recently shared on Instagram, these two iconic names are only the visible tip of a much wider movement. Almost every major American golf destination is now installing pickleball — and sometimes padel — courts to meet a demand that keeps growing and to retain members whose habits are evolving. For the European market, and notably the rapidly recomposing French ecosystem of hotel-clubs and resorts, the American transformation is a textbook case it has become urgent to study closely.

Pickleball, the implicit new standard of US country clubs

For decades, the American country club rested on an almost sacred trio: an 18-hole course, a swimming pool and a few tennis courts. This 1950s-inherited model long justified annual fees in the tens of thousands of dollars. But by the mid-2010s, sports directors of leading clubs began noticing a phenomenon they could no longer ignore: tennis court occupancy was dropping while members increasingly demanded a sport they had discovered elsewhere — pickleball.

The first response was timid. A few painted lines on existing tennis surfaces, portable nets a couple of afternoons a week. Then usage took over: members were now more often seen playing pickleball than tennis. The figures published by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) confirm the magnitude of the shift: pickleball now counts nearly 50 million players in the United States — ten times more than five years ago.

For country clubs, the trade-off became obvious. Sacrificing one underused tennis court to build three or four pickleball courts immediately generated more perceived value, more sign-ups, more billable group lessons and more paid bookings. In a few short years, pickleball has become an implicit standard: a private club that does not offer it is now perceived as falling behind.

PGA National and The Boca Raton Club: case study of two pioneers

PGA National Resort, the legendary host of the Honda Classic on the PGA Tour, opened its pickleball courts a few seasons ago and now operates close to a dozen official courts, several of them lit for evening play. The club runs a dedicated booking grid, weekly group classes, and internal tournaments open to all levels. Members — paying among the highest fees in Florida — strongly endorse the investment.

The Boca Raton Club, owned by tech investor Michael Dell (the founder of Dell Technologies), has pushed the logic even further with an entire complex called « The Hub », gathering eight pickleball courts, padel courts and a state-of-the-art fitness center. The sports management has publicly admitted that the pickleball courts have become the resort's most profitable sports asset by hourly margin per square meter — ahead of the golf course itself.

This pattern is far from isolated. The Cincinnati Open, owner of a $260 million renovated complex, explicitly integrated six pickleball courts into its renovated tennis complex. Tennis legend Rafael Nadal did the same, as we documented in our piece on his huge tennis center with pickleball courts in the Dominican Republic. The message is unambiguous: no major sports project is now built without pickleball.

Why golf resorts are massively adopting pickleball

The adoption of pickleball by golf resorts results from a convergence of factors that go well beyond a passing fashion. The first is demographic. Country club clientele is aging and looking for a sport that is gentler on the joints than 18 holes, but still social and competitive. Pickleball ticks every box, with a particularly short learning curve that lets a beginner enjoy the game from the second session.

The second factor is economic. Where a golf course occupies between 40 and 70 hectares, ten pickleball courts fit on 1,500 square meters. The profitability ratio per square meter is incomparable, especially when factoring in ancillary revenues: group lessons, equipment rental, tournaments open to paying guests, on-site catering. A well-operated pickleball court routinely generates between $80,000 and $150,000 in annual revenue — far above a traditional tennis court.

The third factor, more discreet but decisive, is the intergenerational dimension. Pickleball is one of the rare sports where grandparents, parents and teenagers can play together from the very first session, on the same court and at the same level of enjoyment. This characteristic transforms a family resort stay into a shared experience, mechanically increasing the perceived value of the trip and the likelihood of families returning the following year.

From tee-time to court time: a business model in transition

The deepest shift, still flying under the radar of traditional sport-leisure analysts, is in revenue model. For fifty years, US country clubs structured their economics around the « tee-time »: a course departure slot, paid annually within the membership and per-unit by guests. This unit, inherited from the slow tempo of golf, is being replaced by the « court time ».

A pickleball court is typically booked in 90-minute slots, sometimes shorter. Its hourly rotation is five to eight times higher than a golf course. This completely transforms the operational planning of a resort: booking systems, dynamic pricing algorithms, loyalty programs — everything must be reworked to integrate this new granularity. The most advanced hotel groups (Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons) have already started to train their teams accordingly, understanding that court time will become in the coming decade a key performance indicator on par with RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room).

The sporting goods ecosystem is following suit. Callaway, the global emblem of golf, just launched its own range of pickleball paddles, a sign that historic golf manufacturers no longer see pickleball as a competitive threat but as a natural extension of their customer base. When golf brands themselves become pickleball brands, the debate is settled.

What about Europe: where do resorts and hotel-clubs stand?

The European movement is more recent but is accelerating under the combined pressure of several factors. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) has officially integrated pickleball into its organizational chart since 2024, legitimizing the sport with clubs and local authorities. The first major French resorts — Club Med, Center Parcs, several independent hotel chains in the South-East — are installing their first courts in this 2026 season. A few high-end campsite chains, particularly on the Mediterranean coast and the Arcachon Bay, are actively exploring the creation of mixed pickleball-padel facilities.

The European lag relative to the United States is real but transient. Our sport-leisure culture, the colossal stock of underused tennis courts, and the remarkable intergenerational adhesion already observed on the first courts open to the public leave little doubt about the magnitude this movement will reach in the coming five years. Hoteliers, campsite owners and sports directors who anticipate now will gain a decisive lead over those who wait for the trend to impose itself.

What this trend signals for European hotels and campsites

The American experience offers a few solid takeaways for anyone considering integrating pickleball into a leisure facility in Europe. The first is that a single court is not enough: traffic dynamics kick in from two or three courts upward, enabling mini-tournaments and group bookings of friends or entire families. The second is that lighting the courts for evening play transforms profitability — particularly in Mediterranean zones where daytime heat pushes players toward late afternoon and evening slots.

The third lesson, perhaps the most decisive, is that pickleball should not be thought of as an ancillary amenity but as a stand-alone marquee product. The American country clubs that succeed have structured their communication, offers, themed stays and social media around pickleball, making it a true brand marker. European destinations that grasp this in the 2026 season will gain a head start that will be hard to close later.

The takeaway is clear: pickleball has become, in less than a decade, a new standard of high-end sport-leisure in the United States. France and Europe are now entering the same dynamic, and the careful observation of strategies adopted by PGA National, The Boca Raton and their peers is probably the best compass for those who want to take the turn at the right moment.