Troon Privé Club Management

[Ereim]

Has anyone had good / bad / indifferent experience with Troon managing a private club? One of our local private clubs just signed an agreement with them and I'm curious what the future holds.

[az2au]

I am fortunate and belong to 4 different clubs. One of them is managed by Troon Prive. These clubs are very different from one another so they have different needs. By far the biggest one membership wise is the one managed by Troon. They came on ~2-3 years ago (but after we joined). The club was well run prior to then but I have to say that it has improved in every single way since they came in. The mission statement is very clear and thorough and updates on execution are regularly offered. They are always headed in the right direction as well. They did eliminate some redundant positions in golf and tennis but it is clear that those positions were not needed based on the current operations.

I'll tell you that I would be against it in a lot of situations, one of the clubs I belong to is all golf, membership is capped at 200 regular members and it should never be run by an organization like Troon. They do "nice" and consistent stuff, all high quality but it would be waste at a place like I'm talking about. One of the others is member run and I think we're doing just fine but if we had them come in I don't think much would change. The other is part of a resort so it isn't applicable as the resort will always be running it.

All in all, in the right place I think it works great. They do a excellent job and it is the only one of the types of management companies that I'd currently have any interest in doing business with.

[Ereim]

Thanks for your input! This particular club needs help. The owner has health issues and has been incapacitated for a couple of years. His kids have been running the show and they have little interest in golf (where as he would play every day when he was healthy). The kids have moved resources to other projects (new restaurants, vineyard and lodge). I think they must have finally got enough negative feedback about the golf conditions that a change had to be made.

Sounds like Troon stepping in will be a good thing.

[divebreck]

We belong to a Troon run Prive in Arizona. Great communication with members and had the same GM from the time we joined, which was 5 years ago. Like many golf clubs besides Head Professional, staff turn over is pretty common. I will say they have done a great job in golf course conditions, even our guests comment on this. If there is a problem it would be food related, and frankly cant blame that on Troon. People forget that really good food costs money.

I think you will be quite pleased with what they can do.

[toypor]

Thanks for the info. If a member of a Phoenix area private Troon club, it appears you are able to play other Troon “in region“ clubs up to 3 times per year (at a fee) and non-region clubs up to 6 times per year. Are Troon properties in Flagstaff, Prescott, Show Low, etc. considered “In region”? Have you been able to use this benefit to play some of the other clubs in AZ? They have a really solid portfolio in AZ.

[golfwb]

Belong to a club in a high tourist area in the Rockies. Before Troon came in you could play anytime you wanted for the most part, but the course was in good, not great shape. Now that Troon has been there for 5 years or so the course comes out of winter pretty much ready to play but the place is overrun by guest play. Having troon has it's pluses and minuses but I prefer a private club owned by its members.

[divebreck]

I beleive you are correct, we have taken advantage of that situation going to The Boulders and La Paloma, and Blackstone. Was great at each location!

[az2au]

I think AZ is one region but there’s a few things that are interesting. Not all clubs show up as managed by Troon Privé. For instance, the club I was talking about doesn’t show up as one that other members can make tee times at. No idea why but I know only our full Active Certificate members have Troon Privè privileges. That cuts the numbers down quite a bit.
That said, @toypor I would never recommend joining a club due to the reciprocal privileges that you may get. I guess it might be ok if there’s a network like Club Corp has in DFW, Houston or ATL but it is a very small part of a normal club experience. I say this as someone that used to think in those terms 20+ years ago. Now, after belonging to a number of clubs over the years, it honestly matters zero. I’ve learned the only reason to join a club is that you want to be there. If you join it to play elsewhere it won’t be a good investment and you’re likely to quit before too long.

[divebreck]

Agreed with what was said above. We have made use the prive a few times over the last 5 years, but in no way did the privilege have a decision in joining the club.

Troon can do some great things especially when it comes to agronomy, but the service comes at a price. Like I said they run the one club we belong to quite well, and would not hesitate joining another Troon run establishment.

[toypor]

Thanks for the info and I totally agree. I have been a member at a few clubs around the country including one run by ClubCorp. I think I only used the reciprocal benefits a few times over several years... Used during work travel and not in the local market as I picked the club with my favorite course and had a good regular group, why go anywhere else! It is a bit intriguing in AZ as it might be nice to use the benefits up north a bit in the summertime. Any decision to change clubs will be based almost entirely on the home club. Troon Prive’ could be a tie-breaker : )

Certainly always appreciate your great insight.

[gr00vetech]

If a member owned club can't run effectively without a management company there are only 2 reasons. They either can't hire effective managers or they want to tinker to much and don't let their managers do the job they were hired to do. Either way its the memberships fault and it becomes the culture at these clubs and they will constantly fight these battles again and again. Eventually, they waste more money and hire a management company then they get tired of being told what to do and go back to the old cycle.

[az2au]

Interesting perspective and I think in most cases I agree but in a club that is striving to be much more of a city type club the amount of overhead and infrastructure that is needed doesn't always translate to member run. At the club I'm talking about there are ~800 total members but less than 400 have golf privileges. I know another member that I work with that only uses it for swimming and fitness and another that I don't think has done anything other than play tennis. I use the fitness center when I'm down there for work but 90% of my activity is golf related. Those two guys don't even play golf. I mean, ever. When you have that type of disparity and different needs I think you start running into issues that work better with a management company. All of the other places I belong to are golf first (one is golf only!) and they wouldn't benefit nearly as much from that effort.

I will tell you that we use Troon for maintenance at the golf only club and it has been absolutely awesome. Saved us a ton of money, we have had the same superintendent working with us for ~10 years and course conditions are immaculate. There's no consideration whatsoever for using them as management but they are still really beneficial for maintenance.

[skaileh]

Although I'm not a Troon Prive member I've played a few Prive courses due to my Troon National membership. All I can say is that 90% of the Troon managed courses I've played have been in immaculate condition and have always been well run. On top of that, now you should (I think) be able to take advantage of being a Troon Prive member yourself and visiting other Troon Prive clubs all over the US at the discounted Troon Prive rate (usually 50% off if I'm not mistaken). I would look at it as a positive if Troon took over the management of my home course and I'd be excited about it. Hope that's your experience!

[gr00vetech]

 

I call it experience not perspective lol. Having come from a club with 800 plus members and all of the activities you mentioned, it was effectively run with clear direction from the board and a quality GM. Often times, its that clear direction or identity that is lacking and leading to many of the issues. That goes back to my original point about the members being the cause. They hire a management company to ultimately tell them what kind of club they are because they can't figure it out.

I can remember being at a very simple golf only club and a member complaining about the food at Member Guest just not being "fancy" enough for the atmosphere. While this conversation was happening I told him to look at the first tee where a member was teeing off with 2 different shoes on and a broken push cart. I said you can be that guy or Surf & Turf but you can't be both. That club still suffers from not having a clear identity because its member run without having a GM or even the Golf Professional lead the way. The committees and board just spin in circles.

[az2au]

Fair enough but in this case I will say that every single member I’ve talked to Is happy with Troon and the surveys indicate an extremely happy membership. At the member guest last year I talked to several people that had been members 20+ years and all of them thought this was the best shape the club had ever been in. This is first time it hasn’t been member run.

The golf only club in this example is the most expensive so it may not be a good example. There’s no doubt of the identity there.

[TedWee]

I’m just excited it seems like Troon Prive’ is legit.  Was looking up old CC course I grew up on 1,000 miles away from where I live today.  Been very disappointed with ClubCorp, but it’s appeal was being able play courses all over US.  Troon seems awesome but first course near where I live in Houston (listed on their website) had never heard of Troon Prive’. 

[Myherobobhope]

On 5/23/2020 at 8:45 PM, Ereim said:

Has anyone had good / bad / indifferent experience with Troon managing a private club? One of our local private clubs just signed an agreement with them and I'm curious what the future holds.

Troon is now managing my club in Kentucky. Overall it's fine... not all good, not all bad... and COVID has obviously changed things for country clubs in general.

 

Good:

Overall operations are more streamlined. We have access to better tools as a club, and the membership has final say in everything... Our financial health is decent for once, and everyone Troon has helped us fine has been great. 

Bad:

All the corporate streamlining means that you operate more like a corporation... There is less flexibility by the staff, and they now have corporate overlords... It's created some weird hiccups, and at one point I had to bring the golf staff lunch because the food staff hadn't provided it, and they could no longer order their own meals from the restaurant (they had other solutions, I was just trying to help them out as it was 4th of July weekend, and they were slammed)

If you have any under the table employees, they will be let go. I can neither confirm or deny the amount of grounds crew that was being paid under the table, but I can say we had a large amount of new help start after troon took over. It was a struggle, and good grounds crew are hard to find... they all easily found jobs at other courses!

Indifferent: Expect turnover. Especially at the top level. We replaced our general manager, let go our accountant, replaced the head chef, and did not re-sign our golf pro to his contract. From what I've seen of Troon, this is not uncommon. I'm very happy with all the new staff they brought in, but if your really like anyone on your staff, make sure they are positioned to keep their job... Our assistant GM remained on the staff, but he's basically the only person we kept. 

 

Overall, if your club is struggling to take care of business, I think Troon can be helpful. It's not a perfect solution, and it has some trade offs, just like everything else in life... but overall, I think they have done a good job, and I'm (mostly) glad we have access to them... It will also become a point of blame for any issue... "Troon says we can't re-use carts" and things like that... but that's just human nature!

[ousuxndallas]

Bumping this to the top.  I'm curious about club dues increases, and if anyone has insight into Troon's practices?  Club Corp / Invited raises our local club's dues 10% year-over-year for the past 4 years.  Dues are over double what we signed up for.  It's frustrating a lot of people.  I'm looking into a Troon-managed club, and curious if that will be their philosophy/practice.

[divebreck]

Our Troon managed club went up 8% for 2024, but Troon doesn't make that decision the owner does.