Wally: "Companies that are going to be U.S. centric, they will be roadkill on tomorrow's scorecard."

Mike Johnson posts a very interesting Q&A with Wally Uihlein following today's announced sale of Acushnet to Fila Korea. While his comments about globalization are interesting, what really stood out for me was his interest in the middle class of Korea. I get the sense that the demise of the American middle class must be making Wally wonder about the future of the business here.

We are very excited about it, particularly the principles involved in it and the centric nature of where the equity is coming from. There is no better-structured golf market than Korea. It's a vibrant market and it has the four necessary conditions that the golf industry requires: a middle class, teaching infrastructures, places to practice, and the professional game. It also is going to help us in that part of the world, while at the same time the acquiring entity is such that it will remain business as usual here.

And beating that middle class drum later...

The middle class is one of the fastest growing in the world. To wit, they already have 3 million golfers, we think it will get to 5 million, which is very close to the U.S.'s 10 percent of population participation number, which is the highest in the world. It has 400 and that will probably tap out at 550 simply due to the land-locked nature and the geography of the country. It has 1,200 outdoor standalone driving ranges and 9,000 certified instructors. If you walk into a driving range there, you walk in and on the wall are photos of 15 instructors and they have three trainers. It is the most organized golf country in the world as far as understanding the game of golf is not easy. In understanding that golf needs to facilitate the transfer of best practice.