In February, David Toms sank a final-hole approach to win the Chubb Classic by one shot on Tiburón Golf Club's Black Course. Three months later, renovation crews began gutting the lobby of the resort a few hundred yards away. Both happened this year, at the same address, to two completely different parts of the property.
That split tells you something about how the people who run this neighborhood's anchor resort think about its future. The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón is in the middle of its first major renovation since its 2022 rebrand, a project that touches guest rooms, suites, the lobby, and most of the food and beverage program. It does not touch the two Greg Norman courses that just hosted a PGA TOUR Champions event for the sixth year in a row. If you wanted to know what Host Hotels & Resorts believes Tiburón is becoming, the renovation scope is the clearest answer available, and it is not the one most people would guess.
What's Actually Changing This Year
The transformation began in May 2026 and is set to debut in full by fall 2026, according to the announcement from Host Hotels & Resorts. Parker Torres Design is leading it, the same studio that reworked the beachfront sister property, The Ritz-Carlton, Naples. The design language draws from the tropical greenery around the resort and from the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary that Tiburón Golf Club sits inside, which is its own detail worth sitting with: a resort built around championship golf is pulling its next look from the wildlife buffer around the fairways rather than the fairways themselves.
The food and beverage lineup is getting the most visible rework. As of March 2026, the resort ran three sit-down venues and a cafe: Ría for Latin American lunch and dinner, Lemonía for Mediterranean-style breakfast, Bella Vista Lounge for lobby cocktails and live jazz, and eXpress(o) Cafe for coffee and grab-and-go. The renovation introduces two new culinary concepts, and Ría is the one venue specifically confirmed to stay open and operating throughout construction. Guest rooms, suites, and the lobby are being redesigned alongside the dining changes.
The single new addition with no direct predecessor is Swaying Palm, a 2,700-square-foot event space with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the golf course. It's built for weddings, milestone birthdays, and corporate retreats, according to the official transformation announcement, which is a category of business Tiburón didn't have a dedicated venue for before.
Andrew Roberts, the resort's general manager, framed the scope in terms that named the neighborhood directly rather than just the hotel brand:
"This evolution is more than a redesign, it is a milestone moment for our Ladies and Gentlemen, our loyal guests, the Tiburón homeowners, and the vibrant Naples community we have called home for decades."
That's an unusual thing for a resort press release to say. Most renovation announcements talk to guests and travel press. This one talks to homeowners by name, which suggests the project team understands that a meaningful share of the people who will notice the new lobby and try the new restaurants live inside the gates, not just outside them booking a room.
What's Staying Exactly the Same
The two Greg Norman-designed courses, Gold and Black, are outside the renovation's scope entirely. So is the golf calendar. The Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO, now in its 39th year overall and its sixth at Tiburón since the tournament moved there in 2021, played its 2026 edition February 13 through 15 on the Black Course. David Toms closed with rounds of 67, 63, and 73 for a 13-under 203, edging Boo Weekley, defending champion Justin Leonard, and Michael Wright by a single stroke at 12-under 204, according to the PGA TOUR Champions leaderboard. The purse was $1.8 million.
Toms's second-round 63 is worth pausing on, not because it's a record, but because it isn't one. It ties the low 18-hole score recorded at Tiburón since the tournament arrived in 2021.
Year | Round | Score | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Round 1 | 63 | Fred Couples |
2023 | Round 3 | 63 | Alex Cejka |
2024 | Round 1 | 63 | Rocco Mediate |
2026 | Round 2 | 63 | David Toms |
Four sub-64 rounds across five years on the same golf course, spread evenly rather than clustered in one unusually soft-conditions year, is a small but real signal that the Black Course has stayed consistent while everything else at the resort has been in flux. The Chubb Classic's official site already lists the 2027 date, February 8 through 14, meaning the tournament returns to Tiburón roughly four months after the renovation's fall 2026 completion.
Why the Order of Operations Matters
Tiburón's original pitch was golf first. The 2022 rebrand announcement described a resort built around "a pair of 36-hole signature Greg Norman golf courses" hosting three professional tournaments a year. Nothing about that pitch has changed, and the renovation was clearly built to protect it rather than touch it. The course stays exactly as it was tested and photographed in February. What's being rebuilt is everything a golfer doesn't need but a homeowner, a wedding guest, or someone booking a corporate retreat does: a lobby, a pair of restaurants, an event space with a view instead of a fairway underfoot.
Roberts's own language points to the same conclusion. He described the fall 2026 unveiling as "perfectly timed to welcome the world for our championship golf tournaments," which means the renovation's finish line was set by the golf calendar even though the renovation itself avoided the golf product. The course is the fixed point everything else gets built around.
What This Actually Looks Like Between Now and Fall
For anyone tracking the property through the season, here's the practical breakdown of what's operating normally and what's mid-transition:
- Open and unaffected: Both Greg Norman courses (Gold and Black), the Mouratoglou Tennis Center, the Reservoir waterpark with its 600-foot lazy river, and Ría.
- In transition through fall 2026: The rest of the dining lineup beyond Ría, plus guest rooms, suites, and the main lobby.
- New this fall: Swaying Palm event space, two new culinary concepts, and the redesigned lobby, rooms, and suites.
The resort has said explicitly that it will stay fully operational through the entire process, so none of this involves a closure. It's a live renovation layered on top of a working golf resort during Naples's shoulder season, timed to wrap before the next Chubb Classic gallery shows up in February.
The Calendar Tells the Real Story
Line the two timelines up and the shape of the year becomes clear. February brought the golf, unchanged and consistent enough to produce a fourth 63 in six years. May through fall brings the rebuild of the parts of the resort that have nothing to do with a scorecard. By the time the 2027 Chubb Classic tees off, Tiburón residents and their guests will be walking into a redesigned lobby and a new event space on their way to watch golf played on the exact same greens that hosted David Toms's win. The neighborhood isn't choosing between its golf identity and something new. It's keeping the golf fixed and building a broader season around it.
If you're weighing what any of this means for a property you already own here, or you're simply curious how Tiburón compares to other North Naples golf communities heading into next season, Alfred Robbins Realty Group tracks these shifts at the neighborhood level year round. Request a private consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
