The King Calls Out "National Sporting Goods Retailer"

Arnold Palmer has been reading NGF reports and looking at Dick's Sporting Goods numbers and he just doesn't buy all the claims that golf is dying.

Particularly fun in the GolfChannel.com column is this part citing NGF numbers followed by his indirect call out of Dick's Sporting Goods, the retailer that blamed golf's "structural decline" for its poor business decision and subsequent layoffs.

In 2014 some analysts questioned whether golf - a sport that has been growing worldwide for about 500 years - is dying. You’ve heard some of the eulogies:  Participation, they say, is down. That’s not exactly accurate. Sure, golfers are always leaving the game, but new golfers are always joining and if you ask the National Golf Foundation the churn we’re seeing is in line with historical norms.

The critics cite the problems experienced by one or two sectors of the industry while ignoring the solid results of others. For instance, nearly all of the Chicken Littles screeched in July when 500 PGA professionals were laid off from a national sporting goods retailer. The media played up the fact that the layoffs were due to softening sales of golf equipment. What the headlines didn’t mention is that those golf equipment sales were down just 2 percent from the previous quarter.