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Private-equity-backed Concert Golf Partners found its niche as the “only pure-play private club operator in the industry”—and the company just made its largest acquisition ever with the more than $60 million purchase of a property in Cape Cod.
Florida-based Concert Golf, founded in 2011, announced June 13 the acquisition of The Club at New Seabury on Cape Cod, a 300-acre golf and beach club on the Nantucket Sound that includes two golf courses, a tennis facility, hiking and biking trails, and more. The deal, which increases the company’s portfolio to 39 clubs across the U.S., is more than double the size of its next-largest acquisition, according to SVP Jordan Peace.
Concert Golf’s involvement doesn’t stop once the acquisition is made. In fact, Peace tells Front Office Sports the company has a “large, multimillion-dollar capital plan within the next few years” to add to the club, even though it is already “healthy and thriving.”
Peace says because Concert Golf is solely focused on private clubs, not public courses, it is not in direct competition with the largest U.S. golf course operators—like the top two, Invited and Arcis Golf, the latter of which recently reached an enterprise valuation of $2 billion and has a portfolio of 70 golf courses. The Arcis portfolio is basically an even split between public and private clubs.
“We have no desire to be the biggest,” he tells FOS. “We do want to be the best, and what the best means is the right clubs for us.”
It has been finding a lot of the right clubs lately. In November, Concert Golf bought The Georgia Club, a 350-acre club located near the University of Georgia; in October, it beat out multiple suitors to acquire the 261-acre Golf Club of the Everglades; and in July, it picked up TPC Jasna Polana, a 220-acre club near Princeton University.
“We have been, for the last two-and-a-half years or so, elevating our portfolio,” Peace says.
Peace points to the nearly “unlimited resources” Concert Golf has at its disposal in order to upgrade and maintain facilities after a deal. Those unlimited resources are thanks to investors like private-equity firm Clearlake Capital, which first invested in Concert Golf in 2022.
The private-equity industry’s interest in golf makes sense, as its resurgence as an asset class is legitimate. Participation in the sport has “surged” by 30% since 2016—including with a rise in female and junior golfers—and industry revenue has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 4% over the last five years to nearly $35 billion this year, according to research firm IBIS World.
Clearlake has other sports holdings too, such as Chelsea Football Club and PrimeSport, a sports and entertainment hospitality company. According to Peace, Clearlake has been a “great partner” because it is patient and understands its role as a financier that works from the shadows while allowing the experts to do their work.
“Our members do not, and never will, notice who our investors are in the background,” he tells FOS. “Our leadership team is incredibly strong; they know how to operate premium private clubs.”
