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J.J. Spaun’s 64-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the U.S. Open last month may have also helped the company behind his putter win a nine-figure sale to private-equity firm L Catterton.
The Connecticut-headquartered PE firm is buying a majority stake in L.A.B. Golf, the maker of Spaun’s zero-torque DF3 putter, in a deal that values the company at more than $200 million, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Front Office Sports. The companies announced the deal, without financial details, on Tuesday. The agreement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
L.A.B. Golf, based in Oregon, has “experienced rapid growth in recent years,” according to the press release. Some of that recent growth can be attributed to the high-profile putt from Spaun, a PGA Tour journeyman whose winning putt did more than just net him a record-tying $4.3 million winner’s check—it led to a surge of new sales and social media posts referencing the company and its products.
At the time, Sam Hahn, founder and CEO of L.A.B. Golf, told FOS that Spaun’s success had led to “total pandemonium” at the company. Hahn said then that the company, formed in 2018, had no private backers, though he told FOS he was willing to listen if the attention provided by Spaun’s winning putt ginned up any interested investors. “We’re open to any phone calls, of course.”
Turns out he was being coy. Talks had already started with L Catterton, but discussions were not exclusive. In fact, prior to entering into serious discussions with L Catterton, Hahn says L.A.B. Golf was “courted, in a real way,” by roughly a dozen potential buyers, including multiple PE firms.
“L Catterton was literally the only company that didn’t mention the flip and their exit within the first 20 minutes of being in the building,” he tells FOS. “They are truly entrepreneurial in spirit. They asked, very simply, ‘How do we make this brand the biggest and baddest it can be? What can we do to continue what you guys have already done?’”
L Catterton is a consumer-focused firm; other companies in its portfolio include Birkenstock and JustFoodforDogs. Past investments include exercise bike giant Peloton and road bike maker Pinarello.
The deal has not been well-received by everyone. Customers voiced concerns on social media this week when the transaction was rumored, including a Reddit thread that racked up a number of negative comments. But Hahn says the entire management team is staying on—minus the CFO, who had been planning to leave before the deal anyway—and he stresses that L Catterton is not coming in to operate the company. Instead, it wants to provide financial backing to help it grow, develop new and more customized products, and more.
“When the news broke, we were definitely pretty bummed to see how concerned everybody was about the future,” he tells FOS. “That said, I totally get it. When we first set out to do a transaction, I was vehemently opposed to doing it with private equity.”
But in order to find the right deal, Hahn ultimately realized the right move was to at least hear out potential PE suitors, and L Catterton “just blew me away in their philosophy around cultivating brands.”
In response to concerns, Hahn says: “Customers are the single reason we are where we are. Give us a chance to break the stereotypes around private equity. I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
