Golf Company Known for Its Free Giveaways Enters Bankruptcy
It appears gifting away loose golfing clubs won’t be the name of the game to overcoming lousy luck, vexatious litigation, and a lack of management.
Warrior Custom Golf Inc., the producer satisfactory acknowledged for its tv commercials boasting no-strings-attached giveaways of golf balls and golf equipment, filed for financial ruin in Texas this week. The Chapter 11 petition lists assets as much as $10 million and debt of as a lot as $50 million. Ten associates additionally sought protection which includes Warrior Golf LLC.
Warrior Golf owns and manages 18 golfing courses throughout the country, consisting of Cimarron Golf Resort located in Southern California. According to court papers, Cimarron is the corporation’s maximum worthwhile course and fell prey to flooding in the direction of top season final 12 months.
The identical “challenging environment” different golfing industry contributors have faced in the latest years, a “loss of control depth and expert monetary guide” and debt duties contributed to the submitting, Chief Restructuring Officer Jeremy Rosenthal wrote in a courtroom declaration filed Tuesday.
They want to file turned into accelerated through the access of a judgment stemming from Warrior Custom Golf employees allegedly deceptive and soliciting greater than $1 million in investments from an aged guy for almost a decade.
The complaint filed in Manatee County, Florida, remained yr information about how in 2007, a Warrior Custom Golf representative allegedly known as 86-yr-vintage Cecil Mellinger tried to promote him discounted golfing golf equipment. According to court docket papers, when Mellinger declined, the consultant supplied a funding opportunity that could turn $five 000 into $20,000 in 3 years. Mellinger invested $15,000.
Over the following nine years, consistent with the grievance, the enterprise solicited extra cash 23 times, funneling additional than $1 million from Mellinger into various LLCs — even after Mellinger suffered a stroke that impaired his cognitive competencies. In 2017, the investments had been transformed to promissory notes worth roughly $422,352 or forty cents at the dollar. The court docket required Warrior Custom Golf, Warrior Acquisitions, and Warrior Golf to put up collateral totaling approximately $1.Three million by using March 4 to stay the execution of the judgment.
Lacking the budget to publish the collateral even as they mission the default judgment and to keep away from the preferential judgment lien being filed against the Royal St. Augustine Golf Club in St. Augustine, Florida, the organizations and related entities filed for bankruptcy. On Wednesday, a Texas judge accredited the organization’s request for as much as $2.Fifty-five million of debtor-in-ownership financing, in keeping with court papers.
Warrior Custom Golf has generated more than $270 million in sales to about 1.3 million clients since it was founded through Brendan Flaherty in 1998. Warrior Custom Golf typically has annual sales of greater than $15 million, according to the filings. Warrior Acquisitions, the golf direction management entity, generated approximately $thirteen million of annual revenue in current years and published a working loss of $680,000 remaining yr.
The organization declined to comment through a spokesperson. A press launch posted Wednesday says the organization “has sufficient liquidity to fund operations” and remains open for business.
The case is Westwind Manor Resort Association Inc., 19-50026, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas (Laredo).
