The course on which I live was just purchased by some organization that has contracted with Troon Golf Management to run the course. Anyone familiar with this outfit?? Should I be happy?? The last owners put very little into the place so I am hoping this new group has better plans. Thanks, Dr Dave
I have only played one Troon golf course and it was in good shape and the green fee was reasonable. From what I hear, the other Troon properties are good.
From my limited experience with Troon, it is light years ahead of American Golf.
Dave,
The courses where I live in NC were recently (about a year) taken over by Troon management. Troon is a large organization and I would guess it depends on who is in charge. I found them to be a bit arrogant and not particularly good. Our greens maintanence has suffered, even allowing for unusually harsh weather this summer. They have been unresponsive to any suggestions or criticisms.....by that I mean they acknowledge receipt of said communication and do nothing. They sent a restauranteur to be head of the whole thing....he is barely a golfer, owns clubs, doesn't play and just sort of smiles about everything. And they have fired some people who were effective and hard working, while retaining most of the 'cool aid drinking brown noses' who don't do much.
Play is slower (rangers can't confront slow groups..it isn't the troon way) the greens are worse, course setup which was always a problem is just as bad. Prices are higher.... I'm not loving them. The employees they brought in from troon itself are not first class in either competence or presentation.
The also lost their contract at Tidewater, a great course down the road a bit, a few years back. I'm told there was the arrogance factor and the loss of some greens.
I think it depends on who you get in charge...and how the ownership frames the current problem; they strike me as a big beauracracy. They seem to think that improvements are things like... 'troon tees' and having all the sand bottles line up in the same direction on golf carts... or using the 'troon standard' for rakes half in and half out of bunkers. The routine answer for everything is "well, that is the troon standard," when you laugh they look confused. If you are coming from american golf... it still might be an improvement.
Yikes!! That doesn't sound too comforting. We have a really nice staff at the course and I was told they all just had to re-apply for their current jobs with Troon. I guess my first clue to their management scheme may be determined by how many of the current group they keep. The problem we had with the previous 2 owners was they tried to do everything on a tiny budget and do as little as possible. We were hoping Troon might put a few bucks into the place---time will tell! Thanks for your time psheehan.
I'm very familiar with Troon Golf Management.
I live a few blocks from their Corp office in Scottsdale AZ, and I know several officers and Board Members.
In general, they manage courses, they only own a few. They tend to put a lot of time and money into upgrading courses. However, the goal is usually to turn the course into a "high end daily fee" operation. That usually means that conditions improve, but fees go up a bunch.
One of my good friends is worldwide director of facilities.
Another is dir of instruction.
Small world huh?
If you have any specific questions, I could probably get you some info. glfnaz@qwest.net
Thanks glfnaz. I have now found out that Troon has some group, I believe it's Pure Golf or something like that , that manages their public courses and Troon does the private ones. The course involved, Hickory Heights Golf Club in Bridgeville,PA, is the one involved. It's a pretty decent public course. Any inside info you can get would be of interest to me. Thanks, Dave dcg1952@comcast.net
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