Through The Green: Fast-Growing Korean Private Equity Firm Takes A Big Swing At Golf

After a pandemic boost to golf, Seoul-based Centroid Investment Partners is betting big that the sport will continue to prosper in the post-pandemic world thanks to factors off the fairway.

In 2020, when the pandemic shut down most sports, one old-fashioned sport saw a record number of new people taking up the game: Golf.

More than 3 million people in the U.S. played golf for the first time in 2020, according to the Florida-based National Golf Foundation. The previous record high was in 2000, when golfing great Tiger Woods (who became a billionaire last year) was at the height of his popularity. And golfers played more rounds—some 60 million more—than they had the year before. Overall equipment sales also increased by 10% compared with 2019, per Golf Datatech.

Jinhyeok Jeong, founder of Centroid Investment Partners and chairman of TaylorMade.

“We believe the pandemic accelerated the growth of golf, just like remote working and virtual communication,” says Jinhyeok Jeong, chairman of San Diego-based golf equipment maker TaylorMade, in an interview. ?Read More