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    Topgolf has appointed a new senior leadership team as it begins its next chapter as a standalone business, promoting from within and hiring from the entertainment and hospitality industries following the completion of its separation from Callaway. Leonard Green and Partners acquired a 60 per cent stake in the Topgolf and Toptracer businesses, effective 1 January 2026, in a deal valuing Topgolf at about USD 1.1 billion. Topgolf Callaway Brands received about USD 800 million in net cash proceeds and retained the remaining 40 per cent.

    The reshuffle follows the arrival of David McKillips as chief executive in February 2026. McKillips joined from CEC Entertainment, the operator behind some of America’s largest family entertainment brands, where he served as chief executive, and his appointment set the direction for the team now taking shape around him.

    ‘We’re building a leadership team with proven entertainment, sports and hospitality expertise to bring Topgolf into its next chapter,’ McKillips said. ‘These leaders bring deep operational expertise, strong track records, and a shared focus on innovation, execution and creating long-term value for the business.’

    The appointments

    Erin Chamberlin has been promoted from chief operating officer to president and chief operating officer. Chamberlin served as interim president from October 2025 and led the company through its transition from Callaway to Leonard Green Partners. In her expanded role she oversees operations, in-venue support services, event sales and technology.

    Susana Arevalo steps up from senior vice president of finance and US venues chief financial officer to group chief financial officer. Arevalo has been with Topgolf since 2023, and her earlier career includes senior finance roles at Wingstop and Yum Brands.

    Jay Spears joins as chief information officer after nearly six years as CIO at CEC Entertainment, reuniting with McKillips. He takes charge of the technology organisation behind Topgolf’s venues, including cybersecurity, data and games, and will shape the company’s digital strategy.

    Jon Olsen is promoted from deputy general counsel to general counsel, leading global legal, compliance and risk. Olsen has been with the company since 2017 and has supported its capital markets activity, real estate growth and strategic transactions.

    Scott Blevins is promoted to president and general manager of Toptracer, the company’s ball-tracing technology arm, having previously run it as general manager. He leads Toptracer’s global expansion across driving ranges and broadcast, and also oversees Swing Suite, the company’s simulator product.

    Two newly created commercial roles complete the picture. Jason Weatherford, with more than 35 years in retail and entertainment including Palace Entertainment, becomes vice president of in-venue sales, responsible for food and beverage, retail, procurement, facilities and golf instruction across the venue estate. Amanda Lily Lam becomes vice president of golf marketing across Topgolf and Toptracer, building events and programmes for committed golfers.

    The company has also moved from two operating regions to three, appointing Northscott Grounsell, who brings more than 25 years across casino gaming, hospitality and food and beverage, as regional vice president alongside Cheli Breaux and Chris O’Neil, both raised from senior national director of operations.

    Why the appointment matters

    The make-up of the new team is the story. Topgolf’s leadership is now drawn from entertainment, gaming and hospitality rather than traditional golf, and its range-technology arm has a president of its own. For operators watching the indoor and venue-entertainment economy, that is a clear statement about where the format believes its growth lives: operational discipline, technology and food and beverage, run by people who learned those trades at scale outside the game.

    For Topgolf, the appointments put named, experienced owners on every line that matters to a venue business: operations, finance, technology, legal, regional delivery and the golf-facing product. For the wider golf industry, the company’s bench is now a benchmark, because the venues competing with Topgolf for an evening’s entertainment spend will be measured against exactly this kind of operating capability.

    What the leadership team means for operators

    The clearest message for operators is who these leaders are not. Topgolf as a standalone business is being run by people from entertainment and hospitality rather than equipment retail, which confirms what the format always was: a hospitality business with golf as the hook. Food and beverage, group bookings and repeat leisure visits are the engine, and the new team has been hired to run that engine harder.

    That sets the standard other venues are measured against. Ranges, simulator lounges and clubs with ambitions beyond their membership are competing for the same leisure spend as cinemas and competitive socialising brands, not just for golfers. The bar on service, programming and atmosphere is being set by operators who think in covers and dwell time, a case we made in the clubhouse kitchen is a business, not a service.

    The promotion of an operations leader to president also tells operators where value is believed to sit: in consistent site-level execution. Multi-venue golf businesses should read that as a vote for operational discipline over headline expansion.

    What sponsors and investors should read into it

    For brands, a standalone Topgolf with an institutional owner behind it is a sharper commercial counterparty. Venue chains sell what tour golf cannot: year-round footfall, mixed groups, birthdays and corporate nights, and inventory a sponsor can physically touch, from bays to menus. Expect partnership sales to become more assertive and more data-led.

    For investors watching golf, a majority investment of that size says institutional money believes golf entertainment has room to grow. That context matters to anyone valuing golf venues, a theme running through how the UK golf course property market is trading and who buys a golf course.

    The wider hiring pattern

    The reshuffle extends a pattern this column keeps recording: golf businesses hiring leadership from outside golf. Entertainment, hospitality and multi-site retail executives are being brought in to sharpen guest experience and earn more from every visit, while golf-native managers hold the technical and playing side of the house.

    For the hiring market, that cuts both ways. Golf operators can now sell themselves to hospitality talent as a growth sector, and golf professionals can move the other way into entertainment-led venues. Job descriptions, pay bands and interview panels at ambitious venues will start to reflect it.

    Who should act, and how

    UK range and simulator operators should benchmark their food, drink and events offer against the entertainment standard now, before it becomes the customer’s default expectation. Members’ clubs should decide which parts of the model to borrow (group formats, winter programming, faster food service) and which to leave alone.

    Hiring managers should widen the funnel. If the biggest name in golf entertainment recruits from family entertainment and hospitality, a UK venue advertising a general manager role can do the same. Write the role for operators, not just golfers, and post it where the trade will see it.

    What an entertainment-led bench signals for traditional venues

    Read the CVs and the strategy is plain: this is a leadership team assembled to win evenings, groups and food and drink spend, not to win golfers from golf clubs. That distinction matters for traditional venues, because the competition is for the same discretionary night out, the birthday booking, the work social, the couples’ evening that a clubhouse rarely captures.

    Clubs hold advantages they undersell: real golf, an established community, parking, and a catering operation already on site. The weaknesses are equally familiar: early closing, booking friction, and an atmosphere that can read as members-only to a visitor. A club that programmes its bar like a venue (quiz leagues, simulator socials, food nights with a bookable table) competes for evening spend without pretending to be an entertainment brand.

    The signal worth acting on is professionalisation. When a competitor staffs hospitality, marketing and operations with specialists, the standard a casual visitor expects from any golf experience rises with it. Venues do not need a full executive suite to respond, but they do need somebody who owns the evening trade and is judged on it. Give that person the authority to change opening hours, and measure them on midweek evening takings.

    A standalone range technology arm changes the supplier map

    Running ball-tracing range technology as its own business with its own president tells clubs two things. First, the technology will be sold harder and wider to third-party ranges and clubs, because a standalone unit lives on external revenue. Second, the practice ground is now contested commercial territory, not a quiet corner of the sport.

    For clubs, technology-enabled bays shift the range from cost centre to bookable product: sessions, leagues, coaching packages and winter revenue that does not depend on daylight. A range with tracing technology also becomes a recruitment funnel, because casual players who would never book a tee time will book a bay, and some of them convert to lessons, opens and membership.

    Scrutiny still applies. A standalone technology business has its own targets, which reach clubs as contract length, per-bay pricing and hardware refresh cycles. The questions are the same as for any software purchase: what happens at contract end, who owns the data the bays generate, and whether the installation lifts dwell time and food sales enough to justify itself. Technology that does not change visitor behaviour is decoration.

    Frequently asked questions

    What does the leadership team mean for operators?

    It confirms golf entertainment runs on hospitality economics: food and beverage, groups and repeat visits. Venues competing for the same leisure spend should benchmark service, programming and atmosphere against entertainment operators, not only against other golf venues.

    Why has Topgolf hired from entertainment and hospitality?

    As a standalone business with a majority investor, Topgolf is prioritising proven multi-site operations, guest experience and long-term value creation, skills that sit in entertainment and hospitality leadership as much as in golf.

    Who should act on the news?

    Range and simulator operators should sharpen their events and catering offer, clubs should borrow what fits their membership, and hiring managers should widen searches to hospitality and entertainment talent when senior venue roles come up.

    Should traditional golf clubs copy entertainment venues?

    No, and they cannot. The better response is to programme existing assets, the bar, the simulator room, the range, as bookable evening products with somebody accountable for that trade, while keeping the club’s real advantages: golf, community and catering.

    What does a standalone range technology business mean for clubs?

    Expect the technology to be sold to clubs and independent ranges more actively. That creates opportunity, a bookable range product and a recruitment funnel, but contracts, data ownership and refresh cycles deserve the same scrutiny as any software purchase.

    Sources: Topgolf Callaway Brands, completion of the sale of a majority stake in Topgolf; company leadership announcements.

    Tom Fielding

    Operator and venue desk. Writes from behind the counter and the greenkeeper’s shed: club operations, membership models, staffing, course budgets, food and drink, tee-sheet yield.

    Reviewed by the Golfer9 desk
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