Having attended the previous five Hawai'i golf industry conferences hosted by the Aloha Section PGA, I have to say the sixth session held Tuesday at the Koolau Golf Club topped them all.

It had the largest turnout with 225 people representing different sectors of Hawai'i's golf, hotel and tourism industries. And, for the first time collectively, representatives from the state (Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona), senate (Mike Gabbard) and city council (Todd Apo) showed up.

"We had three guys who really understand the value of sports marketing and also the social values of golf for the state," said Greg Nichols, who organized the first golf conference 10 years ago when only a small room was needed for the 60 who attended.

Even Jim Remy, the new PGA of America president, came away impressed. "It's been a great two days. I'm happy to be here for the conference and Aloha Section meeting," said Remy, who had to rush off to catch a plane for today's press conference in New York to name the next captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He didn't blab to say it would be Corey Pavin.

Remy was one of five national golf figures here for the conference, joining David Downing, national president of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America; Kelly Elbin, PGA of America's director of communications; Larry Gilhuly, USGA's Northwest Regional turf adviser; and Peter Ryan, director of the Stanford Research Institute International, which did an economic impact study of the golf industry in Hawai'i. They were joined by local moderators, including NBC golf analyst Mark Rolfing, Aloha Section president Matt Hall, Thos Rohr of Waikoloa Land Co. and Mary Bea Porter-King, president of the Hawai'i Junior Golf Association.

The goal of the conference was to form a nonprofit alliance of the local golf associations and those in the tourism and hotel industries to protect and promote the golf industry with a unified voice.

"We've talked the talk. Now we need to walk the walk," said Nichols, Ko Olina's director of golf. "We need to have a single unified voice from every market sector. We need to pull together."

It won't be easy as everyone has their own agenda.

"Golf here is territorial," said Rolfing, noting that the different resorts on each of the other islands have their own vested interests. "But everybody's got to make some sacrifices if it's going to succeed."

Whether the alliance becomes a reality or not, emphasizing the need for one is a start, making this year's conference perhaps as significant as the initial meeting in terms of results. The formation of the Hawai'i Junior Golf Association and a tourism golf advisory board came out of that 1998 conference, Nichols said.

For the first time, those attending the conference had an opportunity to give some input during the four breakout sessions. Not surprisingly, the liveliest was the one focusing on golf and tourism, co-chaired by Rolfing and Marsha Wienert of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.

There's a need for a unifying voice because there's a "disconnect between golf and the hotel industries" right now, Rolfing said. The session raised some concerns about the steady decline in tourists and how to promote the game despite the troubling economic times.

The golf industry is big business in Hawai'i, according to Ryan. His economic impact study, based on 2007 figures, showed that golf had a direct impact of $1.3 billion, nearly double that with multipliers factored in. It's not counting the wages for the 7,638 jobs it created at the state's 83 golf courses.

"That's pretty impressive," said Ryan, noting that it translates into a lot of tax revenue for the state, enough to make any legislator sit up and take notice. That also goes for the national level, according to Remy, pointing out that golf is a $76 billion industry, employing two million workers. "Congress paid attention. The golf industry remains relatively healthy despite the recent economic downturn," he said. "The industry is not broken. We're not losing jobs."

While Hawai'i's $1.3 billion figure looks good on paper, it's not comforting to those in the industry. There are troubling signs, not only because of the decline in the number of visitors since September. Even during the peak years, there was a drop in the number of rounds played.

"We had more golfers when we had five million visitors than when we had seven million visitors," said Scott Head, Waikoloa Resort's general manager and director of golf. A Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau study found that only 14 percent of the visitors from Japan played golf during their stay in 2002, dipping to 8 percent in 2005. That's on top of a 38 percent decline in Japanese tourists.

So, it's not just a matter of selling Hawai'i, which is still a premier golf destination. Ryan says it's "pretty impressive" that Hawai'i had seven golf courses ranked among the America's top 100 according to Golf Digest last year, considering the number of courses here compared to say, Florida and California, which have more than a 1,000.

So, what's the reason for the disparity?

Hall, who's also Turtle Bay Resort's director of golf, and Rolfing both think that the biggest reason is competition — not among the resorts, but for time spent golfing when there are other recreational activities that are more family oriented.

They suggested the idea of nine-hole rounds and shortening courses for youngsters by moving up their tees as a way of making golf a family affair. "Get them on the course, they'll come back later," Hall said.

That's in keeping with Remy's belief that the golf industry should come up with creative ideas in these changing times.

"We need to look at golf in a new way, we need to be willing to change," he said. One way to do that, Remy said, "is to view golf not only as a sport but as a game, something fun to play."

That said, about 80 stayed to play a round of golf at Koolau, rated one of the toughest courses in America. And the only church-owned golf course in America, according to Ron Mathiew, an elder with the First Presbyterian Church.

"It's a lot more forgiving since we bought it," he said.