One local Golfsmith store closed, future of other in limbo

The Golfsmith retail store in North Myrtle Beach that was targeted to close as part of the parent company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September was shut down on Oct. 23, leaving one location on the Grand Strand.

The future of that location, a three-year-old Golfsmith Xtreme store at the corner of U.S. 17 North and U.S. 501 South, is in limbo according to a Reuters report.

The news agency, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that Dick’s Sporting Goods teamed with liquidators to win a bankruptcy auction for the U.S. business of Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. with a bid of about $70 million.

The sources, according to the Reuters report by Jessica DiNapoli, said Dick’s plans to keep open at least 30 Golfsmith stores and wind down the rest with liquidators from Hilco Global and Tiger Capital Group.

Golfsmith had 109 U.S. stores at the time of its bankruptcy filing last month, but identified about 20 it planned to close in October.

Dick’s appeared to be down on the golf business when it laid off all of its PGA of America-certified professionals in July 2014. Those laid off consisted of several hundred pros who handled sales, club fitting, club repair and instruction.

Dick’s already has its specialty golf shops called Golf Galaxy, which it acquired in 2007.

According to Reuters, Dick’s beat out a competing bid from Worldwide Golf Shops and liquidators from Great American Group LLC, which had also planned to carry forward about 30 Golfsmith stores and shutter the rest. Golfsmith was also considering reorganizing with the support of its existing lenders, which might have saved more locations.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 10:34 PM with the headline "One local Golfsmith store closed, future of other in limbo."