KemperSports and Touchstone Golf leadership are excited to combine the strengths of both organizations

In March, KemperSports and Touchstone Golf announced that they entered into a new strategic partnership. Under the new arrangement, Touchstone will operate as a division within KemperSports, with Touchstone President Mark Luthman being named an executive vice president of KemperSports. Touchstone CEO Steve Harker will serve as a consultant during the transition process.

Steve Skinner, CEO of KemperSports, said that he has long admired what Luthman and Harker built with Touchstone Golf and that the companies have talked about finding a way to work together for a while.

“As those conversations continued, it became clear that it was a situation where we felt one plus one could equal three, or more,” Skinner said. “We are just a couple weeks in, and we are already seeing it bear fruit. From KemperSports’ perspective, in addition to adding some really talented people to the team, strategically it adds strength to our portfolio in California and the Southwest, two areas of the country in which we are looking to grow.”

The goal of the partnership is to enhance the customer experience for guests and open up new avenues for growth.

Founded in 2006 and based in Austin, Texas, with a regional office in the California Bay Area, Touchstone Golf is one of the country’s pre-eminent firms specializing in third-party management services and advisory services for daily fee courses. Their portfolio includes more than 40 golf properties in Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Skinner said KemperSports will operate the Touchstone properties under the Touchstone brand and with the same team supporting the properties.

“That team will be supported by the KemperSports corporate and regional team to help enhance the properties’ performance,” he said. “We will be integrating our operations, marketing, finance, and human resource teams and will utilize the best practices from each company to make us stronger.”

The Touchstone properties now under the KemperSports umbrella will receive the same support services as all other KemperSports properties, with all teams sharing best practices with each other. The regional marketing teams have already met and combined resources, with other improvements to follow.

Luthman and Harker built Touchstone’s reputation to be what they referred to as “turn-around experts,” someone who can identify challenges, craft tailored strategies and…