Reports: Denver’s Old Tom Capital emerges as preferred buyer for TaylorMade

The Denver-based investment group has bid on one of the leading brands in golf

By Jim Bebbington

Denver-based Old Tom Capital has emerged as the preferred buyer for one of the leading golf brands in the world, TaylorMade, according to Korean financial media reports.

TaylorMade is owned by a group of Korean companies, led by a private equity group Centroid Investment Partners, which announced a year ago its intention to sell the brand at a reported asking price of around $3.4 billion.

Old Tom Capital is a golf-focused investment group whose two founders are based in Denver and Atlanta. It’s Denver-based partner, Matt Erley, has described the company as wanting to focus on new golf-related businesses which have products or services that are aimed at helping the game grow.

Erley and partner Evan Roosevelt have grown Old Tom Capital through investments and acquisition in at least 16 golf firms. The investment firm has made investments in Good Good Golf brands, TMRW Sports, the parent organization of the indoor televised golf league TGL, and TRUE Linksware, an apparel line.

TaylorMade would represent a massive shift away from recent startups and into the highly-competetive world of golf equipment production and marketing.

Last month TaylorMade CEO David Abeles told the digital sports media outlet Front Office Sports that the company hoped a sale to a new owner could go through by the end of 2026.

“We’re well into that plan right now,” Abeles said. “We believe we have found real options that will enable us to co-invest into the future of the company.”

TaylorMade was founded in 1979 and is one of the world’s largest golf equipment brands. It has endorsement deals with many of the top names on the men’s and women’s professional tours: Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Nelly Korda. The company partnered with Woods to launch his Sun Day Red clothing brand, which he created after his longtime partnership with Nike ended in 2023.

The golf equipment industry is highly competetive, with TaylorMade, Acushnet and Callaway among the industry’s largest companies. Both Acushnet, which markets golf brands including Titleist, Volkey wedges and FootJoy, and Callaway, whose brands include Odyssey and TravisMathew, are publicly traded companies; TaylorMade is privately held. Callaway sold its TopGolf division in November.

Korean-based financial publication Chosun Biz reported last week that Old Tom has bid $3 billion for TaylorMade. A dispute between two of the Korean companies which own TaylorMade appeared to have been resolved in late January, Chosun Biz reported, clearing the way for due-diligence to be done around Old Tom Capital’s offer. One of the Korean firms, F&F, had been considering excercising a right-of-first refusal option to buy the entire company, but opted in late January to back the effort to sell the company, Chosun Biz reported.

Erley, Old Tom Capital’s managing partner, contacted by email this week said his company had no comment. “We don’t comment on market reports or ongoing transactions,” he said.

The TaylorMade brands were owned by Adidas until 2017 when it was sold to U.S.-based private equity firm KPS. KPS oversaw a company turnaround and sold it in 2021 to Korea-based Centroid.

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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