PGA of America

At the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, the PGA of America fired up the troops with a new initiative they call "Golf 2.0." The new effort has laudable sentiments, to be more inclusive and accommodating for example, but there are also some extremely ambitious goals in there too. In short, Golf 2.0 sets the bar at adding slightly less than one million new regular players a year to the 26.1 million who now play golf, and by 2016.

By 2020, it sets more than 40 million as its goal. And that during a period of "the new normal" in the American economy -- a "normal" where economic growth is far slower than the bubble-driven economy of 1995-2008, and a "normal" where employers are squeezing even more productivity from their employees with longer working hours. Salary growth is expected to remain modest, as is job growth at least in the near term. In other words, Americans will have less money and less time, but in eight years, the PGA of America thinks it can grow 65% in terms of recreational golf.

Ambitious indeed. But is it realistic? Some think not.