Hillerich & Bradsby, maker of the Louisville Slugger, has filed suit against the USGA, charging that by not approving the Bionic Glove, the USGA has violated federal antitrust laws.

Hillerich and Bradsby claims that their Bionic Glove, which also has versions for other sports has met USGA guidelines, but that the Association rejected the glove anyway after changing the rules. Retailers which had begin to stock the glove, now apparently are returning them after the glove was rejected in a final appeal.

I’ve been wondering when this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time before some company, angry that its technical innovation was rejected, sued the USGA for restraint of trade. Golf equipment simply isn’t going to get sold without the USGA’s seal of approval. I had thought that it would happen with the Callaway driver controversy, or with some other piece of big time equipment; it seems ironic that the lowly glove is the focus of such a lawsuit.

My guess is that this will never go to court. I don’t think the USGA really wants to test its standing under antitrust laws. If they somehow lose, the genie will be out of the bottle for golf.

Troubled Callaway has found a new CEO. The full press release follows:

On its first day of trading as a public company, Golf Galaxy finished up 35%.

Fox Sports reports that while attendance and viewership for golf is up, the number of rounds played peaked in 2000. It seems that the Tiger effect is wearing off, as people find that it’s not as easy as he makes it look.

Then there’s the fact that it’s not an easy game to get into:

“The game is difficult, expensive and requires an extensive time commitment,” said Casey Alexander, a scratch golfer who covers the golf industry for Gilford Securities in New York. “Facilities are hostile to the newcomer, and other participants are hostile to the newcomer. If you’re bombarded by hostility in your first year of playing the game, you’ll go bowling.”

Couple this with the expense, a general economic downturn over the last few years, and the time involved, and it turns out that golf loses two out of every three new players in a year or two.

I think that the PGA (the teachers and course managers) have really got to work on this one. The expense and time things are not solvable, but the hostility on the course is. Golf simply needs to be more welcoming to new players.

There are a lot of ways to get into the golf business short of being a golf pro. You could be a blogger, like me (although there’s not much money in it—certainly not enough to quit your day job). Or run a golf store. Or a groundskeeping business.

In Minnesota, a guy named Scott Lokken dives in ponds for golf balls, and then sells them on Ebay. He works 5 days a week, scouring the bottom of the ponds of 35 courses. On an average day, he extracts 5,000. The course gets a cut and the rest, he sells on Ebay.