Troon Colorado: 14 Courses and Counting

BY JON RIZZI

Thirteen years ago, you couldn’t have found a messier situation than the Club at Cordillera.

The owner, David Wilhelm, had shuttered three of the four courses on the 7,000-acre property and filed a $96 million lawsuit against the members. They countersued him for even moreand resigned in droves. A bankruptcy and auction followed. Wilhelm was an investor in Wind Rose Holdings, the California group that bought it for $14.2 million.

That purchase took place on December 12, 2012. Almost a dozen years to the day later, on December 10, 2024, The Club at Cordillera sold again, this time to Troon, for an undisclosed amount greater than $14.2 million.

If any buyer knew about Cordillera, it was Troon, the world’s largest golf and golf-related hospitality management company. The Scottsdale-based company’s private-club operating division, Troon Privé, had managed Cordillera for Wind Rose since January 2013 and played a critical role in the club’s resurgence from a distressed property to a highly desirable one.

“From the day Troon set foot on property, the company has brought stability and a pursuit of excellence to The Club,” said Cordillera general manager Michael Henritze, who has overseen every aspect of the facility’s operation since arriving in 2013 from another Troon-managed Colorado property, The Ridge at Castle Pines. “Now as sole owners, Troon’s unwavering commitment to quality and passion for service will seamlessly continue.”

The Cordillera acquisition represents somewhat of an anomaly for Troon, which now owns only six golf properties but provides management services at more than 900 locations around the world, including the operation of more than 575 golf courses.

“When it comes to acquisitions, we’re opportunistic,” Chief Development Officer Scott Van Newkirk says, noting that many of Troon’s purchases over the past seven years have been other golf and property management companies (OB Management, Honours Golf, Green Golf Partners, Applied Golf, Indigo, ICON) and other complementary businesses in the areas of food and beverage, tennis, caddie services, sports event management and more.

“Places like Cordillera don’t trade too often,” he says. “We’d managed it for twelve years and the owner was looking to sell. Owning it allows us to plant a flag and grow around it in terms of the management side of the business.”

The Trooning of Colorado

Even before taking title to The Club at Cordillera, Troon’s management presence in Colorado had doubled over the past two years — from five facilities with seven courses to 12 with 14. Three of the recent additions are private (Country Club of Colorado, Lake Valley Golf Club, Valley Country Club) and four are daily–fee or semi-private (Pelican Lakes, Raindance National, Grand Elk and the nascent Bella Ridge in Johnstown).

Those venues have joined The Ridge at Castle Pines North, Rollingstone Ranch, Heritage Eagle Bend, Bookcliff Country Cluband the three-course community at Cordillera.

“For a long time, we fought the perception that calling Troon in meant something was wrong,” the company’s Chief Legal Counsel, Jay Grath, says. “After 2008, private clubs were looking for members, and public courses were looking to fill tee sheets. Post-pandemic, the conversation has changed. Daily–fee courses are looking to manage their operations to maximize revenue, and private clubs need to have a capital program that reinvests in amenities such as F&B and racquet sports that are relevant to new members.”

Troon’s wide-ranging resources enable clients to access experts in all areas of club operation — including accounting, agronomy and human resources — as well as save hundreds of thousands of dollars on the procurement of everything from mowers, grass and sand to pool chemicals, pickleball equipment and provisions for Prime Rib Fridays and Fourth of July bashes.

Troon’s success at Cordillera led to its management of Valley, where Bob Goodman, the board president, who was also a Cordillera member, convinced the board to bring in Troon.

Troon also fights the perception that it imposes cost-cutting measures and changes in staff and policies. “Stories get changed in the sewing circle,“ Cathy Matthews-Kane, General Manager at The Country Club of Colorado, says. “Every course has an agreed-upon objective that Troon is hired to deliver on. My budget actually has increased with Troon as our partner.”

“We don’t mandate things,” Longmont native Brandon Fowler, Troon’s VP of business development, says. “At the end of the day, it’s never about us. We work for the club. We pride ourselves on listening to the goals and objectives of our clients, not forcing things on them.”

It all depends on the owner, explains Matt Molloy, Troon’s Vice President of Operations. “We have consulting deals, like with Pelican Lakes and RainDance, and there are à la carte models, like Grand Elk, which does its own accounting.”

At Bella Ridge, a public course that will open later this year in Johnstown on a former dairy farm owned by members of the Podtburg family, Troon has been a partner since the beginning of construction.

“Outside of designing the course, they have been alongside us every step of the way,” Stephanie Podtburg, the representative, says. “Troon has given us direction. There are so many details you just don’t think about—things you would never look for or think to ask. They have resources for everything. The owners are smart. They know their expertise is dairy farming. Business is business, but every industry is different, and I don’t think any of the owners want to be involved in the day-to-day golf operation. So, Troon will oversee that.”

Knowing what they don’t know doesn’t come as easily to some owners. Such is often the case with member-owned private clubs whose members have experience running corporations, but no familiarity with how to manage and operate a club.

“When there are five–hour meetings about the way the chef prepares steaks, we know they need help,” Van Newkirk says without naming the club in question. “Our job is to get them out of day-to-day oversight and focus on planning and the bigger picture.”

What About the Golfer?

Since its founding in 1990, Troon has always aspired to hospitality-caliber customer service and superior agronomic conditions. “From a consumer standpoint, when you hear the word ‘Troon’ you know what you’re going to get,” Fowler says. “We deliver consistency and brand recognition at all locations.”

On the private side, members at Cordillera and the other four Troon Privé clubs can play as many as six rounds per year at any of the 145 participating clubs at preferred rates. “Our members love it; they can go to our sister properties in Arizona and Hawaii at a discount determined by that club — plus they can bring guests,” Matthews-Kane says.  

On the public side, Troon built its reputation on euphemizing its public courses as “upscale daily–fee” facilities. Today, these layouts, which now number more than 350 and range from munis to PGA Tour stops, all bear the Troon hallmarks of elevated service and course conditions.

How much does access to them cost? Troon dynamically prices tee times using algorithms that factor in predicted demand, weather, tee-time scarcity, area comps and other variables. “We do it the right way,” Fowler explains. “The pricing is not arbitrary, and you can no longer wait until the morning of the day you’re playing to grab a cheap tee time.”

You can, however, still get up to a 50 percent discount within 78 hours of your desired tee time if you sign up for Troon Access. The $249–per–year program also offers 15 percent off standard tee–time rates at more than 150 participating Troon courses and numerous other perks with partner companies like Avis, Ship Sticks and Shot Scope.

Another program, Troon Rewards, has no upfront cost. You get a point for every dollar you spend on golf and merchandise. It does not count dollars spent on food, beverage or guest fees. If you spend $2,000, you qualify for silver status and get 10 percent off the tee time cost; $4,000 gets you gold status and 15 percent off; $8,000 puts you at platinum and 20 percent.

Both programs intend to foster brand allegiance and awareness among golfers. Troon Access is the newer and, ostensibly, the better value of the two.

And by this time next year, there will likely be even more courses in Colorado to use it.