talking points Is Another Lousy Year on the Horizon?

The attendees at last spring's KPMG-sponsored Golf Business Forum were conspicuously glum about golf's economic prospects.

According to an electronic poll taken during the event, 40 percent of the attendees said a turnaround wouldn't begin until 2011, but a whopping 44 percent said they don’t expect the hard times to end until 2012 or -– gulp -– later.

Their gloomy outlook has been echoed by Wally Uihlein, the CEO of Acushnet Company, the maker of Titleist and Footjoy products. In the current issue of South Central Golf Magazine, Uihlein says that the U.S. golf business has fallen to just 75 percent of what it was in 2007 and -- gulp again -- isn't likely to start growing again anytime soon.

"It's a game of limited opportunity here," Uihlein told the magazine. "The first thing we have to do is hold on to the golfers we have. If you can do that, then you have a chance to grow."

Of course, these days golf's true growth markets are on the other side of the oceans, particularly, Uihlein says, in the nations along the Pacific Rim. He singles out China as an especially ripe opportunity, as long as -- and here the magazine paraphrases -- "the middle class continues to grow and courses are built for others besides visiting businessmen."