Topgolf Callaway Brands has agreed to sell a 60% stake in its Topgolf and Toptracer unit to Leonard Green, a Los Angeles-based PE firm.
The transaction values the unit at roughly $1.1 billion and is expected to generate $770 million in net proceeds for Topgolf Callaway.
The valuation falls short of the roughly $2 billion implied equity value that Callaway paid when it first merged with Topgolf Entertainment Group in 2021—a deal struck amid golf’s surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Topgolf was starting to feel expensive to stretched mid-income consumers, Topgolf Callaway’s CEO Chip Brewer said in May. The once-high-flying golf entertainment business also faces growing challenges in sustaining sales and servicing the debt incurred to fund its expansions.
Parent company Callaway last year initiated a strategic review of options for Topgolf.
The divestiture provides a deeper look into how companies take steps to recalibrate priorities when acquisitions don’t pay off as planned.
Carveouts accounted for 9.8% of all buyout deals in the third quarter of this year, slightly up from the previous quarter and above the five-year quarterly average, according to PitchBook’s Q3 2025 US PE Breakdown.
Callaway said it plans to use the proceeds from the sale to make new investments, pay down debt and buy back shares. The company carried $2.23 billion in net debt at the end of the third quarter, much of it venue financing debt—essentially capitalized rent tied to the Topgolf business.
Following the sale, Topgolf Callaway will focus on its core golf equipment business, which includes Callaway, Odyssey, TravisMathew and Ogio. The brands together generated about $2 billion in revenue over the past 12 months.
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