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Proceeds from October Troon Card sales to assist with Hurricane Ian relief efforts

Scottsdale, Ariz. (October 3, 2022) – Troon^®, the leader in providing golf and club-related leisure and hospitality services, has launched its 2023 Troon Card frequent player program with more than 150 Troon-affiliated courses participating. Troon Cards are now on sale at www.TroonCard.com and can be used November 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023, providing Cardholders with preferred rates of up to 50 percent off the standard rate at participating Troon-managed and brand-affiliated courses. Troon Cards are available as a TwoSome Card (for two golfers to play and save), or a FourSome Card (for four golfers to enjoy preferred pricing), and are offered for specific states and regions of the country. A portion of the proceeds for every Troon Card sold in the month of October will be donated to the American Red Cross in support of Hurricane Ian relief efforts.

The popular and specially priced Patriot Troon Card has returned in 2023 as a way of honoring and thanking first responders as well as active duty, veterans, reserve and U.S. military retirees. The Inspire Troon Card also returns in 2023 and is for healthcare professionals and teachers. Both the Patriot and Inspire Troon Card offer the same incredible benefits as a National Troon TwoSome Card, including up to 50 percent off the standard rate for the Cardholder and a guest at ALL participating Troon-managed and brand-affiliated courses around the world. A portion of all proceeds from Patriot and Inspire Troon Card sales will be donated to charitable organizations that support military (Folds of Honor Foundation), first responders (Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation), healthcare professionals (Direct Relief) and teachers (Donors Choose). Those interested in purchasing a Patriot Troon Card or an Inspire Troon Card will be required to register (free of charge) through the Sheer ID employment verification program.

The golf industry’s leading frequent player program is in its 25^th year and has grown to include more than 150 Troon-affiliated courses worldwide. State and region-specific Troon Cards available in 2023 include: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas/Missouri, New York, Midwest U.S., Northeast U.S., Southeast U.S., and West Coast U.S. In addition, the National Troon Card offers Cardholders preferred rates at all participating Troon facilities, including properties across the continental United States, Hawaii, and international facilities. Plus, some state-specific cards also include “bonus states” so Cardholders can tee it up in neighboring states. All Troon Cards offer Troon Card rates at Troon’s international locations.

Troon Cardholders can reserve tee times within three days of their desired date of play and enjoy up to 50 percent off golf fees. For those who cannot wait until three days out to book their tee time, with Troon Card’s Best Rate Guarantee, Troon Cardholders can book any online rate four-plus days in advance and still receive 15 percent off their golf fees at check in. The benefits of being a Troon Cardholder go beyond savings on golf. Troon Cardholders can improve their golf games by participating in complimentary clinics, play more golf with exclusive replay rates and explore the world of Troon with customized experience packages. Troon Cardholders can treat their friends, and themselves, to “2 for 1” golf offers and can celebrate their birthday in style with “birthday round” discounts. A new benefit added for 2023 affords Troon Cardholders special Avis Rental Car discounts of up to 35 percent off.

Additional Troon Card benefits include the Troon Card Facebook Group and special offers exclusively to Cardholders, 10 percent off merchandise at participating golf shops and golf course restaurants, Troon Card E-News with monthly special offers and the ability to book tee times online at www.TroonCardTeeTimes.com.

2023 Troon Cards are valid November 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023 with “early bird” pricing available through December 9, 2022. To view the entire list of participating courses, see Troon Card rates or to purchase a Troon Card online, go towww.TroonCard.com or visit any participating facility.

About TroonHeadquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Troon is the world’s largest golf and golf-related hospitality management company providing services at 750-plus locations, including 725-plus 18-hole equivalent golf courses around the globe. In addition to golf, Troon specializes in homeowner association management, private residence clubs, estate management and associated hospitality venues. Troon’s award-winning food and beverage division operates and manages 600-plus food and beverage operations located at golf resorts, private clubs, daily fee golf courses and recreational facilities. With properties located in 45-plus states and 30-plus countries, Troon’s family of brands includes Troon Golf, Troon Privé, Troon International, Indigo Sports,CADDIEMASTER, ClubUp, Cliff Drysdale Tennis, Peter Burwash International, True Club Solutions, RealFood Hospitality, Strategy and Design, Casa Verde Golf and ICON Management. For additional news and information, visit www.Troon.com.

Troon, the Scottsdale-based third-party private golf course operator, announced Thursday it has acquired Applied Golf Management, a New Jersey-based golf and hospitality management company.

With the acquisition, Troon will take on Applied’s management portfolio of 13 public and private golf facilities in New York, New Jersey and Florida. The move expands Troon’s presence in the Northeast.

Applied's employees will continue working at all the sites and at Applied's offices in Millstone Township, New Jersey.

Troon announced the acquisition of Applied Golf Management a day after it announced it had entered into a new partnership with Invited, a Dallas-based owner and operator of private courses, including the acquisition of one of Invited’s business arms. The two transactions are completely unrelated.

Troon has acquired Invited's management services business, bringing 18 managed and consulting-services agreements into the Troon portfolio.

The financial terms of either deal were not disclosed.

Since 2014, Troon has completed 13 management company acquisitions, including 11 since 2018, which has significantly grown the company's management portfolio, making it a leader in the industry.

The management and consulting agreements acquired by Troon in the Invited deal include a mix of private clubs, resorts and athletic clubs from all over the country and one resort in Honduras. Two of the properties are located in Tucson – Saddlebrooke 2 and Skyline Country Club.

"We are excited to welcome these outstanding clubs, their members, management teams and associates to the Troon family," Troon President and CEO Tim Schantz said in a statement. "We have long respected Invited’s contributions to our industry. This relationship creates new opportunities for each organization and perfectly aligns with our respective missions and focus."

Invited said the deal would allow the company to focus on its main business of growing its industry-leading portfolio of owned and operated golf, business, and sports clubs.

Besides the acquisition of the management contracts, Troon and Invited created a new program that will allow Invited members to play participating Troon-managed resort and daily fee golf courses. And members of the clubs Troon acquired will not only get benefits of Troon’s customer program, but also will keeps its benefits of Invited’s XLife program.

“By working together and pooling together our strengths, we can become even more dynamic in providing resources and infrastructure to our members and clubs,” David Pillsbury, the CEO of Invited, said in a statement. “By combining Invited's unparalleled club offerings with Troon's extensive portfolio, we are creating an unprecedented opportunity for our members to explore new and exciting experiences around the globe.”

The management teams and all the employees at the properties Troon is now managing will stay in their current roles. Troon also is bringing over two former Invited employees – Senior Vice President Seth Churi and Regional Vice President Peter Faraone – to move into similar positions to support the operations at the 18 facilities.

Troon also recently announced it would be working on the renovations of the Rolling Hills Golf Course in Tempe, which upstart Phoenix golf brand Grass Clippings is enabling for nighttime play. Troon will manage the golf and hospitality operations for the 18-hole course once renovations are completed.

Four Seasons Resort at Troon North has appointed two new head members to the team of its acclaimed Talavera restaurant: Chef de Cuisine Jesus Figueroa and Talavera General Manager Michael Elortegui, who will together oversee the operations, menu and overall experience of the resort’s signature Spanish steakhouse.

With a focus on traditional Iberian ingredients, Talavera’s specialties include Paella, dry-aged steak, jamón Ibérico, fresh seafood and a flavorful selection of tapas all complemented by a selection of crafted cocktails and wines. Guests can enjoy the restaurant’s expansive patio seating, which offers al fresco dining and sweeping views of the Sonoran Desert and Phoenix Valley below.

“We are thrilled to have these talented individuals join the Four Seasons family,” says Talavera Executive Chef Chuck Kazmer. “Jesus’ depth of culinary experience in the local marketplace will serve him well at the helm of Talavera, coupled with Michael’s extensive time spent in luxury hospitality. We look forward to continuing to elevate the offerings at Talavera for our valued guests and local visitors.”

Arizona native Jesus Figueroa fell in love with cooking at a young age by watching his mother and went on to earn a degree in hospitality management from the University of Central Florida. Since then, Figueroa has worked outside of Arizona at Michelin-rated restaurant Boka, Jean-Georges at the Ambassador Inn and Bohemian Groove in Sonoma, among other spots. He has also spent time working at locally-acclaimed restaurants, including Cafe Monarch and Tarbell’s, and opened Renata’s Hearth at Arizona Biltmore as executive chef. Most recently, Figueroa was executive chef at ETTA, a concept created by Michelin-starred chef, Danny Grant.

In his leisure time, Figueroa loves to travel, sample local cuisine and wine, and enjoy the arts, such as ballet performances and musicals with his wife. He is also fluent in Spanish, French and Italian. Figueroa looks forward to leading the culinary team at Talavera by combining his local experience with his global culinary outlook.

Michael Elortegui earned his bachelor’s degree from Niagara University and went on to achieve his master’s in international relations from the University of East London. He is originally from Miami, but has been on the west coast since 2015 where he has gained valuable restaurant management experience at the Fairmont Orchid in Hawaii, as well as at multiple hotels and resorts in California. Elortegui most recently was the senior restaurant manager at Bourbon Steak at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. Prior to his time in the hospitality world, he participated in professional global tennis tournaments in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe.

During his free time, Elortegui still loves to play tennis and enjoys teaching skills to new players. Although not an Arizona native, he has family in the area and loves to spend quality time with his nieces and nephew.

Learn more about reservations and dining at Talavera here.

Photos courtesy Four Seasons Scottsdale at Troon North

It was a simple, yet revolutionary idea. The difference between the private club experience and the daily-fee course, in Dana Garmany’s mind, was hospitality-based service. The amount and the level of service and amenities a club member received was typically far superior to that of pay-to-play customers.

In 1990, Garmany began to bridge that gap when he helped build Troon North Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, for developer Jerry Nelson and his Japanese partners, who didn’t want any employee liability issues. So, Garmany trademarked the Troon Golf name as a payroll company for the Japanese partners.

Garmany quickly began to sell the concept to other daily-fee courses, eventually managing the facilities with the goal of providing the traveling golfer with a high-quality product and an even greater level of customer service. He almost single-handedly created a new golf course category — upscale daily fee.

Garmany is now a Troon Board member but the people who run the company today are still faithful to Garmany’s vision while, at the same time, taking the concept far beyond its original borders.

Today, Troon is a global golf course and private club management company with more than 725 courses and 750 locations. The company distinguishes itself among 12 individual brands — Troon Golf, Troon Privé, Troon International, Indigo Sports, CaddieMaster,ClubUp, Cliff Drysdale Tennis, Peter Burwash International, True Club Solutions, RealFood Hospitality, Strategy and Design, Casa Verde Golf and ICON Management.

Along with Troon’s Scottsdale headquarters, the company has offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia, Washington and internationally.

At the time Tim Schantz joined Troon in 1998, the company was managing 10 courses. Since then, the portfolio has expanded practically exponentially.

“We listed all 10 of our locations on fax cover sheets that we prepared for ourselves,” says Schantz, who is the company’s president and CEO. It would take several pages to do that today, even if fax machines still existed. But even as Troon has grown, the idea of a “country club for a day” is still at the core of the mission.

“For sure, we remain committed to the original concept,” Schantz says. “What that really means is exemplary service, high quality product presented day-to-day in a way that's familiar to the customer, even though the customer is a little more transitory than what you might get in a private club where you have the ability to repeat that service.

“What continues to really be strongly true is that we are a service-oriented organization. We have two customer bases: the end user, the people that are enjoying the product that we're helping to provide, whether it’s playing golf, racquet sports or dining. We also have our course owners as our customers. Both are approached by Troon with a service-minded mentality.”

Troon’s growth in the early years was organic, coming from searching out opportunities and knocking on doors. But in 2014, the dynamic changed when private equity firm Kohlberg & Company bought the majority interest in Troon from Goldman Sachs and Starwood Capital. From that point, Troon began to grow through merger and acquisition.

“It’s one of the best things that's happened to us because that led us into recognizing that we had our hospitality management platform, where we had expertise,” says Scott Van Newkirk, Troon’s chief development officer. “But we were missing out on some opportunities because we lacked expertise in other areas. And we went out to fill in the blanks on what we were missing, really with the idea that we were going to acquire that expertise.”

Troon acquired Honours Golf, which gave the company a larger presence in the Southeast. Then CaddieMaster was bought, which focuses on caddie management services. That led to the purchase of Cliff Drysdale Tennis, which brought significant racket sports and fitness expertise. In all, nine companies have joined Troon since 2014 through mergers and acquisition.

“I think as we continue to grow, we continue to round out our offerings through M&A versus hiring a subject matter expert and building it on our own,” Van Newkirk says. “We realize with the private equity involvement that we can get there quickly through an acquisition.”

Leonard Green & Partners bought Kohlberg’s majority ownership in Troon in 2017. And in 2021, TPG Capital partnered with Symphony Ventures — the investment fund of Rory McIlroy — to purchase an ownership position in Troon.

In 2021, Troon made its largest acquisition to date — the purchase of Indigo Golf Partners, which was formerly Billy Casper Golf. The Indigo portfolio included the ownership and operation of 160 public golf courses, private clubs and resorts in 29 states.

“It has opened us up to a significant amount of municipally-owned property where we have a lease relationship or a management relationship that you would classify as a more of a middle market,” Van Newkirk says. “What’s holding true is our commitment to hospitality and quality commensurate with the fee being paid.

“The person who’s spending less still needs to be celebrated and provided an opportunity to have a terrific day, whatever the property. Even though our portfolio mix has changed, I think that's our commitment to hospitality and to deliver an experience for each of our members or guests every day they come to the facility.”

And people have been coming to golf facilities in eye-popping numbers for more than two years, as the game has been experiencing boom times as an unintended and unexpected byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RELATED: Get To Know — Scott Van Newkirk, CDO, Troon

As it turned out, golf was a permittable activity because of the outdoors and ease of social distancing. Daily fee starting times became difficult to get — still are — and private clubs have enjoyed a resurgence, so much that initiation fees are up and waiting lists appeared for even mid-level clubs.

“We were presented a set of circumstances that has really helped to push the sport into a real surge,” Schantz says. “And we think it's a sustainable surge, a new normal. I'm sure that things will level out going forward, but that level is going to be higher than it has been in the past. There were already green shoots for higher participation from a diverse and growing customer base.

“Golf was cool again, if you will. The younger generation was picking it up and Tiger Woods began to have his own resurgence. And then you have this period of time where there just weren’t a lot of things you could do outside the home and golf turned out to be one of them.”

However, what distinguishes this particular upward movement in participation numbers is that it appears that new golfers are sticking with the game instead of coming into the game and leaving it in a short period of time.

“All of a sudden, you break through this sort of period of time where it's easier to quit the game, and you keep at it and then what happens is the epiphany of that magic moment that we're all familiar with when you hit the ball where it's supposed to go in your mind, it feels like you hit it well, you have positive feedback and now the game has grabbed you,” Schantz says.

Part of the future of golf, at least where younger people are concerned, is seen in ways the game is consumed, not just in green grass settings but in places like Topgolf and Drive Shack. McIlroy is invested in a concept called Puttery, a high-end, high-tech take on indoor mini-golf, accompanied by food and drink.

Troon has its own ideas, particularly with its existing facilities. Technology and what Van Newkirk calls the “gamification” of practice ranges and short game areas could help vitalize areas of a facility in ways not usually considered.

“If you look at the NGF (National Golf Foundation) data, it notes the number of people who are coming and experiencing golf in a different way,” Van Newkirk says. “We're bullish on that. We're invested in that. We see it as something that's going to be super important to our company going forward and something for which we believe there's significant demand.”

Among those technology options are golf simulators, which are becoming more popular as an indoor golf option. Troon has plans to open high-end bar environments that include simulators this fall.

“That is all pretty frictionless entry into golf,” Schantz says. “By that I mean, you can wear what you want. You're not feeling quite the intimidation of being dressed properly or new to the golf environment. You can play when you want, and how much you want. I think those things are going to help us create this new normal in the game.”

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The joint venture team of Ryan Companies US, Inc., Cadence Living and a controlled affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, a leading private global investment firm, announced today the completion of Acoya Scottsdale at Troon. The Ryan designed and built project received its certificate of occupancy nearly two weeks early and residents will begin moving in on November 2, 2020.

Acoya Scottsdale at Troon consists of 135 independent and assisted living units offering 22 floorplans ranging from 585 square feet to 2,385 square feet. The new community is situated on six acres of land between Pinnacle Peak and Troon Mountain.

“Given the project site’s shape and topography, our team leveraged extensive 3D modeling to include multiple terraces and entrances,” said Beau Dromiack, southwest director of architecture, Ryan A+E, Inc. “For example, the main entrance transitions to a dramatic, two-story space with a glass wall that frames Pinnacle Peak – a memorable aesthetic that helps differentiate this community.”

Acoya Troon offers contemporary interior finishes designed by award-winning Thoma-Holec Design, underground parking and several amenities.

“We are proud to be opening the doors of this resort-style development in Scottsdale,” said Dan Schwaegler, Senior Vice President, Starwood Capital Group. “Preleasing has been strong and as the first of four senior living projects under development across the United States with Ryan Companies, we are excited to see how well the community is being received in the marketplace.”

Acoya Troon’s garden level includes a music room, salon and spa, theatre and fitness room while the first floor provides residents with a bistro, a great room, formal and private dining options, art therapy and a library. Additionally, there is a game room, PGA golf simulator, bar and lounge, casual dining, a community room and outdoor dining on the second floor. The community also has a resort-style pool, walking path, rooftop patio and valet parking.

“Our team was laser-focused on meeting the need for luxury senior living demand in North Scottsdale,” said Rob Leinbach, principal, Cadence Living. “We’ve created something really special in the Troon area – a state-of-the-art, high-quality community with an abundance of amenities.”

This is the second Acoya development in Arizona with several more planned in the pipeline.

“The combination of incredible partners, the best in-house design-build team and a site with 360-degree views led us to achieving our goal of creating an unmatched, luxury senior living community where residents can thrive,” said Tyler Wilson, vice president of real estate development, Ryan Companies.

Ryan Companies has built over 40 senior living communities throughout the country and Acoya Scottsdale at Troon is the fifth senior living project completed in Ryan’s western division. Cadence Living will add Acoya Troon to their management portfolio which consists of 24 communities and over 4,000 residential units.

For more information about the community, visit www.acoyatroon.com.