Callaway Unwinds Sub-Par Acquisition of Topgolf

Topgolf was a big duff for Callaway. 

On Tuesday, the golf giant announced it had agreed to sell a 60% stake in the popular driving-range-slash-golf-simulator-slash-brewpub brand to LA-based private equity firm Leonard Green. The deal values Topgolf at $1.1 billion, roughly half of what Callaway paid for the brand in 2020. So how could something so beloved by bachelor parties be such a business bogey?

Tee Time

On paper, Topgolf and Callaway seemed a perfect pairing. The equipment-maker had been a backer of the entertainment enterprise since 2006, owning a roughly 14% stake before its $2 billion takeover during the pandemic’s golf boom. Callaway even changed its name to Topgolf Callaway after the acquisition, a symbolic gesture that both brands carried equal import (the company’s name will revert to Callaway Golf Company once the sale closes). Back in 2022, the company even implied to investors it could climb to a total market valuation of $15 billion. Its market cap today? Just $2 billion.

In practice, the two had a hard time sharing a golf cart:

• While Topgolf had been the company’s fastest-growing unit, growth has stalled out amid increased competition and a broader consumer pullback. In its third-quarter earnings call earlier this month, the company said revenue for the segment fell 1.4% in the first nine months of 2025 from the same period a year earlier, and predicted same-venue sales for the year would be “down to mid-single digits,” following a 9% decrease in 2024.
• Worse, the arrival of inflation and high interest rates in 2022 have proven gale-force headwinds for a property business attempting to tee off, spiking its capital expenditures as it expanded its Topgolf footprint from around 60 locations in 2020 to around 100 today.

“I never thought I would actually be listening to the cost of chicken wings going up. But evidently, they did,” longtime CEO Oliver “Chip” Brewer lamented way back in 2022.

Faded: Shares in the company have plummeted more than 70% from a 2021 peak, though they have clawed back some ground this year in anticipation of the long-discussed Topgolf spinoff. Over the same period, shares of competitor Acushnet, owner of Titleist, have climbed by more than 50%, driving the company’s market cap to $4.6 billion. But why keep score when playing amongst friends?