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Golfsmith International, the retailer of golf clothing and equipment, is considering filing for bankruptcy as it looks for a new owner, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Golfsmith hired the investment bank Jefferies LLC to solicit buyers for the roughly 150-store chain, without success so far. The company also hired Alvarez & Marsal to help it restructure, according to sources, who said that a sale could come as part of a chapter 11 filing. The Austin, Texas-based chain is the latest casualty of a struggling golf industry, which hasn’t recovered from a downturn in U.S. participation over the past decade. Nike Inc. announced on Wednesday that it would no longer sell equipment for the sport, and Adidas AG is trying to offload most of its golf brands.

Logan’s Roadhouse Inc., a Nashville, Tenn.-based steakhouse chain with hundreds of locations, is preparing to file for chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The chapter 11 filing may come as soon as this month. The company, which uses the slogan “Where Steak Rules the Road,” has about 250 restaurants in 26 states. The move would follow an announcement that Logan’s was skipping debt payments due in April and planned to delay filing annual and quarterly earnings reports. The company also forged a forbearance agreement with lenders that expires on Aug. 15. Logan’s has suffered from declining sales and a broader restaurant slowdown, which has forced chains to rely more heavily on discounts. 

Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath yesterday refused to allow Sports Authority to pay up to $2.85 million in bonuses to four executives for overseeing the winding down of the national sporting goods chain, Reuters reported. Englewood, Colo.-based Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy in March with hopes of keeping some of its 464 stores open, but battles among lenders and suppliers eventually scuttled those plans. Its final stores closed last month. "I think it’s just inappropriate to pay senior executives a bonus when all the employees are losing their jobs," Judge Walrath said during a hearing. Sports Authority said that the bonuses were essential to ensure executives squeeze the most value out of its assets by adhering to a budget and preventing waste.

Flying Star’s owners have filed a reorganization plan in bankruptcy court that would allow them to retain control of the restaurant chain they built in exchange for surrendering their own claims against the company and putting up $1.5 million in new capital to pay off creditors, the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal reported on Saturday. But their creditors are working on their own competing plan that would mean selling the restaurant chain to another local firm. Flying Star owners Jean and Mark Bernstein filed their reorganization plan in court on Friday. Under their plan, the Bernsteins would bid $1.5 million for new shares of stock in the company and continued management. The infusion would allow Flying Star to pay taxes and other priority claims immediately, pay other creditors, like lenders, in full on an installment basis, and pay the unsecured creditors a total of $790,101. That amounts to 21.5 percent of the unsecured creditors’ $3.67 million in claims, according to the filing. The attorney for Flying Star’s unsecured creditors committee said earlier on Friday — before the Bernsteins filed their plan — that he was working on a “competing plan” based on Southwest Brands’ indication that it wanted to buy Flying Star for $2.5 million.