Dick's Sporting Goods purchased Golfsmith at a bankruptcy auction for about $70 million. File Photo by Susan Montgomery/Shutterstock

CORAPOLIS, Pa., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Dick's Sporting Goods has acquired struggling retailer Golfsmith in a bankruptcy auction for about $70 million, sources familiar with the matter said.

Dick's, which also owns the Golf Galaxy and Field & Stream chains, plans to keep about 30 of the 109 Golfsmith locations open and will liquidate the rest by Tiger Capital Group, Gordon Brothers Retail Partners and Hilco Merchant Resources, sources told The Wall Street Journal.


Liquidator Yellen Partners was the next highest bid in Friday's auction and would have closed all U.S. stores, the Journal reported.

Golfsmith filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 14 and the court approved closing 20 of its worst-performing stores in the United States immediately.

It wasn't clear which stores would close and whether the Golfsmith name would remain.

Golfsmith has been headquartered in Austin since 1973. Until the 1990s, the company primarily operated as a catalog business by founders Carl and Barbara Paul.

Earlier this year, Dick's acquired Sports Authority's brand name and other intellectual property for $13.5 million.

Dick's is based in Findlay Township near Pittsburgh, and has 649 stores. Dicks Sporting Goods was started by Dicks Stack in 1948 when he was 18, according to the company's website.