When one is granted an audience with one of the most powerful figures in the golf industry it’s understandable to enter the conversation with a pre-conceived notion of the sort of personality to be encountered.

As executive vice-president of Troon International, Louisiana-born DJ Flanders could almost be forgiven for oozing a sense of self-importance. To discover he’s down-to-earth, affable, and modest is refreshing – few people at the top of any international sport are quite as personable.

Just a swift perusal of his LinkedIn profile shows a career path which demonstrates he’s certainly not a ‘stupid’ Flanders. This is a guy who’s gone from 27-year-old assistant golf pro to executive vice-president of Troon, in less than 25 years.

So, where better to start an interview with a single-word question: how?

“I did have aspirations to play professionally, but I found out, very quickly, that it wasn’t the right fit for me,” he smiled.

“It was my own fault. I didn’t have the work ethic, as there were too many distractions. I was a pretty good high school player, and I had opportunities to go play college golf at Mississippi State University. Thankfully, MSU also had the professional golf management programme, an accredited programme by the PGA of America. And I found out the business side of things was going to be better for me from a career standpoint.”

And he was correct in that assumption. Joining Troon was, also, a step in the right direction, providing a platform for his talents and developing him into an asset in his own right.

He recalled: “I was very fortunate to start very early in my career at The Westin La Cantera Resort & Spa, in Texas, which was a Troon property. Back at that time, third-party management was not very popular, and I think we only had about ten golf courses within the Troon network at that time.

“But it was great for me, as a young student just out of college, to come into a company with that much structure to learn the standards, the policies, and the procedures – how to do things at a high-end facility, very early on in my career. And, obviously, it opened up a ton of career opportunities for me to be able to climb the ladder.

“If you had told me, coming out of college, I’d be running the international division for Troon, I would’ve laughed at you. But because I worked for Troon, I was given that opportunity. I feel very blessed and very thankful for that.”

Jumping from his first position to his current role in a few sentences, glosses over a hugely impressive CV. Eighteen months into his career he was appointed director of golf at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, in Scottsdale, before, in 2004, he moved abroad for the first time – to Japan and the Phoenix Country Club, in Miyazaki.

He then went on to work at marquee Troon properties in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, with a spell back in the US, on Long Island, sandwiched in between. Now aged 52, he’s based in Dubai, and he’s grateful for all the opportunities Troon has afforded him.

He said: “I went from Kierland to running five golf courses in Japan, and I was a very young professional at that time.

“I would never have had that international opportunity or, most likely a multiple facility opportunity at that age, at a different company. And to be honest, I wouldn’t have been ready for it.

“But with the way Troon is structured, I had the support of some very talented individuals behind me who make sure I succeeded. So, I was able to take that jump with the knowledge I could be successful with the support of Troon, even though I was on the other side of the world.

“Throughout my whole career, I wish I could say it was all based on my talent; but I’ve succeeded because I have all that talent behind me, is the way I’ve always looked at it.”

Naturally, language barriers were, initially, an issue abroad, but his life experiences had set him up to take such scenarios in his stride. “I was a military brat,” he explained.

“My dad was a colonel in the army, so I would change homes every six months. And I was always kind of comfortable being uncomfortable. When you submerse yourself in a language like I did in Japan, you pick it up quite quickly.”

The change of role, early in his career, meant opportunities to work further afield came thick and fast and he was accompanied on his travels by wife Debbi, and sons Maverick – who last year joined Troon as accountant at its Birmingham, Alabama office – and Ace.

Flanders said: “Look at my CV and you’d think I’m running from the law, but my role was a ‘turnaround’ guy. I was always ‘come in, turn it around’ and then hand it over to another general manager. I got in a niche where it was three years and I would leave, but not necessarily.

“We’re very transparent about opportunities within Troon and we like to hire and promote from within. And when you have a culture like that, people have transparency on jobs and they see areas of the world that they want to go to, they put their hand up.

“So, yeah, we do tend to move around a little bit, but it’s by choice. It’s not like truly moving people; its people putting their hands up and saying, ‘I’d really like that opportunity.’

“We really believe we put a lot of time into our associates to build them up to the leaders they are today, and then we want to give them opportunities and support them to be successful.”

Looking ahead, Flanders will be one of the driving forces behind Troon’s continued expansion into Asia and Europe, regions into which they’ve previously only dipped the corporate toe. He admitted: “They’ve been tough markets for us to crack, but most of it was self-induced.

“I think we were going after those markets with fee structures that didn’t make sense for the client. And I think as a company, we had more of a McDonald’s model where it was: this is who we are, take it or leave it.

“We’ve changed dramatically since then and we’ve become more of a toolbox of services. And we’re much more flexible on our pricing. I think with that model, we’re going to have much more success.

“If you look back at Troon from an acquisition standpoint over the last couple of years, I think we’re up to 900 facilities, give or take. A lot of that has come through acquisitions and through that we’ve acquired multiple brands. So now we’re able to be flexible and provide different services under these different brands and then charge different fees for that.

“We’ve become more client focused where we say what does the client need? What are the services we can provide? And then what is a fair fee that we can charge so we can exceed their expectations?

“We haven’t been able to grow the portfolio up to 900 properties by not being able to retain contracts. We’re not a five-and-dime company. We have a very high client satisfaction rating.

“I think Japan is a market we’re going to see is open for some help, particularly driving golf tourism. We’re starting to see the same thing in Korea.”

If, like me, you’re wondering what the DJ stands for, your intrepid reporter was not afraid to go there.

Flanders smiled: “David, Jonathan… I’ve been DJ from day one. It’s a challenge when you go to Asia because they don’t really like the initials. And I can’t tell you how many times I check into a hotel and disappoint the check-in because they thought I was a DJ. Look at me. ‘You’re not a DJ!’. And I’m, like, no, I’m not.”

He might not be a DJ but he’s certainly responsible for many excellent tracks.