The state that inspires golf dreams and rocked the cradle of two of the current game's most charismatic young players is waging a battle to hold onto its share of the market in the midst of one of the worst economic times in modern history.

Hawai'i's "direct" golf economy is approximately $1.4 billion, roughly the same as its full-service restaurants, according to an economic impact study by the Stanford Research Institute, commissioned by Golf 20/20 for the Aloha Section PGA. The study covered 2007, when Hawai'i was home to seven tour events and generated a "total" economic impact of $2.5 billion.

There were a dozen events here about 25 years ago, with five on network television before the explosion of cable.

Times have changed.

More people viewed the Senior Skins Game from Mauna Lani before the 1994 Super Bowl than watched all the Hawai'i golf events this year. With the Kapalua LPGA Classic canceled two weeks ago, next year's "Aloha Swing" is down to four events, all in January — the SBS Championship (formerly Mercedes-Benz) at Kapalua, Sony Open in Hawai'i at Waialae, Wendy's Champions Skins Game at Ka'anapali and Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Every contract but Mitsubishi is up for negotiation after 2010.

There were three LPGA events here last year. Now there are none and Hawai'i's grip on the PGA and Champions tours is slippery. A billion dollar industry, which brings in a few billion more, is losing its high-definition advertising base.

"Everybody advertises golf, there are ads all over the place telling everyone you think you have a good product," said Kapalua's Mark Rolfing, a golf analyst for NBC and The Golf Channel and one of the most perceptive and passionate Hawai'i golf supporters. "When you have an event and the best players in the world show up that's a third-party confirmation — a testimonial to the quality of your product. It's way more beneficial than advertising.

"Sometimes we focus too much on TV coverage the week they are here as opposed to the year-round exposure we get. Events are critical."

For golf in Hawai'i, and Hawai'i in general. The 93 courses here support jobs for more than 30,000 people and also draw visitor, construction and retail dollars. Golf-related tourism was worth nearly $442 million in 2007 in Hawai'i, where visitor rounds account for a larger share of the market than other states.

There are also more than 350 charitable golf events annually, which raise about $25 million. That doesn't count Friends of Hawai'i Charities, which has distributed another $9 million locally since it was formed to help save the Hawaiian Open in 1999.

Those numbers are clearly down now, here and every other place bitten by the economic bug — and who hasn't been stung at least a little? The LPGA's sponsorship problems have been well documented, but other tours are also vulnerable with their emphasis on financial and automotive sponsors. Rolfing looks at the start of the next PGA Tour season and sees what could be a black hole with the four events after Kapalua — Sony, Bob Hope (Chrysler), FBR and Buick — all in sponsor limbo.

The Aloha Section PGA, made up of the state's club pros and golf pros who run the daily industry, is one of 41 PGA of America sections nationally. It started the Hawai'i Golf Industry Alliance last year, made up of leaders of the game's associations and market segments. Jim Haugh, hired as section executive director just before the economic meltdown, formed it to try and create a single voice from the game's diverse entities.

At the Hawai'i Golf Industry Conference last December, those entities came up with a list of 70 goals and objectives for the alliance. They ranged from broad ideas such as helping tourism to offering more support to organizers trying to retain and secure events, sharing resources and creating a junior development academy. They shared concerns about hotel occupancy and its huge impact on resort courses, maintenance costs, environmental impact, airline baggage charges and the lack of advance booking opportunities.

Ideas that came out of that meeting included the introduction of junior tees and courses, hosting a foreign tour event, pushing the national Get Golf Ready program, getting more involved with high school golf and introducing more leagues.

Those at the conference also tried to address the very pressing issues of money, time and the perception that golf is frivolous.

"The image of playing golf in Hawai'i has changed dramatically," Rolfing said. "Fifteen years ago the image of going to Hawai'i to play golf for sponsors or CEOs or people in general was very high. Now that has changed. For the average person it has changed because of expenses. For CEOs ... there's a trend we're seeing that it's not good to be seen on a golf course. I think it's a fallacy, but it's what the industry is up against."

Adds Gary Planos, Kapalua's senior vice president of resort operations: "We not only have the economy to deal with now, but there is also the perception that playing a lot of golf has — it's not a positive perception right now. We've got to turn the corner.

"I don't see the core golfer playing as much golf as they used to. That scares me because that requires us to bring more and more new people into the game."

Planos calls it a "matter of economics and time management" for amateur golfers. When it comes to professional tours, he finds other problems. Planos was confident he could find a title sponsor for Kapalua's LPGA event when it started last year with a five-year agreement. As the economy crumbled and Kapalua Land Company struggled, Planos said the landscape drastically changed. Kapalua asked the LPGA to "defer" or allow it to cancel the 2009 event with the agreement that it would run the next four years "plus some other provisions."

The two groups could not reach an agreement and now will probably go to court, which could impact the future of the LPGA in Hawai'i. The recent past has been a roller-coaster ride of thrills and controversy.

"I think it will be hard to get another LPGA event here until Kapalua is solved, and only if it gets solved amicably," Rolfing said. "If it doesn't, that will be an issue."

There are many, many golf issues now. Haugh said a check of some 60 Hawai'i courses found business anywhere from "flat" to down 30 percent. Play at municipal courses is up some and private courses are stable, but resorts are taking a beating. Nearly 20 section pros have been laid off in the last year.

"It's a ripple effect," said Turtle Bay Director of Golf Matt Hall, the section president. "It's tough because here there are a lot of facilities designed around developments and for visitors. If you look at the Neighbor Islands, they don't have the local population to support the facilities. Now we're at a point when owners and operators are saying you've got to make money or break even, or reduce what you're doing without sacrificing standards. That's tough.

"What we're starting to see is creativity — specials and programs I think are phenomenal. People are still going to recreate, we just have to get them to think of golf as a form of recreation and not a boondoggle."

Turtle Bay reduced its visitor rates this month and is offering kama'aina "more affordable options." They can now walk the Fazio course, whose green fee is $15 after 3 p.m., any time. "Bottomless range balls" are available before 10 a.m. Others are offering discounts on multiple rounds and rental clubs.

Ed Kageyama, general manager at Ka'anapali, feels the need to make golf "easier to consume." His resort allows visitors to buy 18 holes and play them any time they want over a seven-day period. It also runs a Golf Plus program that gives players perks like a $50 restaurant credit or spa treatment with each round.

Still, Rolfing feels like Hawai'i lags behind the rest of the country when it comes to the concept of "yield," and understanding the bottom line. Golfers want good deals and what they understand best is lower rates.

"We have a tendency to set high rates and have unused tee times," Rolfing said. "Once a time goes unsold, it's gone forever.

"I am shocked facilities in Hawai'i are raising rates. I don't understand. It's not the right message. It goes against all the overall marketing plans for the state, which are to stress how much value we're giving for what people are getting."

Haugh wants Hawai'i to utilize its U.S. tour players — Dean Wilson, Parker McLachlin, Michelle Wie and Tadd Fujikawa — as golf ambassadors. Certainly, Wie and Fujikawa — neither of whom is 20 — have proved they can attract galleries and ratings.

Wie's first appearance at the Sony Open in Hawai'i in 2004, at age 14, spiked the crowd count by 47 percent and TV ratings by 27 percent over the previous year. The tournament drew just over 50,000 that year and again when she and Fujikawa played in 2007, and he finished in the Top 20. Wie's impact on LPGA crowds and ratings is generally estimated at about a 50-percent spike, and who else makes the TV leaderboard even when she is nowhere near the lead?

When Fujikawa shot a third-round 62 this year and was in contention again at Sony, attendance rose to nearly 60,000. Sony's first year, in 1999, drew 23,931. "Tadd is a great spokesman for the aloha state with his charisma and smile, he's great," Haugh said. "We've never really taken advantage of that."

The section is also focusing on the future via University of Hawai'i. It raises scholarship money for both programs and is looking for a home course for them. Haugh is involved in creating a Sports Management & Entertainment major and Pro Golf Management program at UH.

The Chevron Family Fun Zone — a 10-minute lesson for a $10 UH donation — was introduced at Sony and Turtle Bay this year. It will be found in the parking lot at every UH home football game in the fall, with a sleeve of Titleist balls rolled in. There will also be a Golf Skills Challenge at halftime of the Boise game.

The section also is helping with a Hawai'i's Greatest Golf Holes TV promotion. It has shifted its State Open to Turtle Bay and into December to try and draw a bigger and better field.

There is light at the end of the recession tunnel. Tours outside the U.S. have shown interest in Hawai'i, and with the current sponsor frenzy in the U.S. it is always an option. Ernie Els hasn't been shy about pushing his new Hoakalei Country Club as a tour site to promote the development. Rolfing says there are discussions about "a few new possibilities and one potentially old one."

"Is there a way to get the Grand Slam back?" Rolfing muses about the four-man showdown Bermuda bought away in 2007. "There is a lot of sentiment to do that. There may be an opportunity now primarily because of the schedule. The whole thing for Hawai'i, in my mind, is schedule-driven."

That might be the business end. Sentimentally, Hawai'i will always have a place in people's hearts, particularly when the wind is howling and the temperature diving.

"For people that don't golf, I have to still believe the hours and hours of our telecasts showcasing the beauty of the sport, or the resorts, and of the Islands ... that's a very difficult thing to replace," Kapalua's Planos said. "Especially during winter time."