Troon founder Dana Germany is to step down as chief executive officer of the management company on March 31, 2019.
Garmany confirmed his official retirement date at the recent unveiling of the renovated Pinnacle Course at the company’s flagship Troon North Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Current President Tim Schantz will succeed Garmany as CEO, part of a transition strategy that has been in place for some time. A qualified lawyer, Schantz joined Troon in 1998 and boasts more than 25 years’ experience specialising in corporate and real estate transactions, and has been a key player in Troon’s rapid expansion during the past 15 years.
Germany, who previously stepped down as CEO in 2009, only to return a year later, will remain as chairman of the board of the company he founded in 1990, and will focus on long-term strategic goals and big-picture issues across the golf industry. He said day-to-day operations ‘will continue as usual’ at the world’s largest golf management company, which has more than 270 courses in its portfolio
Under Garmany, Troon has expanded its reach not only by adding management and lease contracts, but through acquisitions. It purchased Honours Golf and its portfolio of 16 courses in 2014, and CaddieMaster, a provider of caddie services, in 2015. More recently, Troon closed a deal to buy Cliff Drysdale Management, the largest tennis club management firm in the US. Through those entities and its Troon Privé and Troon International subsidiaries, the company now operates in 330 locations around the globe.
In 2017, Leonard Green & Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, acquired majority ownership in Troon from Kohlberg & Co.
Over the past 28 years Garmany has grown Troon from a single course into to the world’s largest management company, with more than 270 courses in its portfolio. He initially stepped down as CEO at the end of 2009, but returned to that role a year later.