Editor’s Note: After a ten-year hiatus, I’ve decided to take up the game of golf again. I’m getting older and some of the other sports I used to play are just too taxing for my aging body.

It looks like a lot of young people are taking up golf, too. According to the National Golf Foundation (NGF), “3.7 million juniors played golf on a course in 2024, more than in any year since 2006.”

That statistic bodes well for the future of golf. It won’t be long until my baby boomer cohorts and I are no longer playing the game often enough to keep the industry growing. After that, it’s up to these kids to keep the game alive!

Par for the Course

Golf is a big business. The NGF claims, “There were nearly 16,000 golf courses at 14,000 golf facilities in the U.S. at the end of 2024. That’s more golf courses nationwide than McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts locations.”

As impressive as that statistic sounds, that is after a 13 percent reduction in the number of golf courses since 2006. The Great Recession of 2008/2009 sent many golf courses into bankruptcy, while many new development projects were scrapped.

Even though there are fewer courses, golfers are playing more rounds. The NGF states, “There have been more than 500 million rounds played in the U.S. each of the past five years. There were a record 545 million rounds played in 2024, surpassing the previous high of 531 million set in 2023.”

Buried in the Bunker

Anyone who has played golf can tell you that it is not a cheap game to play. A complete set of new clubs can easily set you back several hundred dollars. And that doesn’t include shoes, balls, and all the other paraphernalia golf requires. After that, every time you tee it up will cost you about what you’d pay for a nice dinner at a restaurant.

That is why I did a double take when golf equipment and apparel manufacturer Acushnet Holdings (NYSE: GOLF) popped up on my list of oversold stocks last month. Its brands include Titleist and FootJoy, two of the most recognized names in golf equipment.

Five months ago, Acushnet hit an all-time high above $76. But after the Trump administration took an aggressive stance towards reciprocal trade tariffs in early April, its share price plunged below $56.

Bear in mind, golf is played all over the world and is especially popular in Asia. The added cost of the reciprocal tariffs being proposed would have made it difficult for Acushnet to effectively compete in those markets.

Nice Recovery

That’s when short interest in Acushnet soared above 20 percent of its float (share trading on a public exchange). Speculators on Wall Street pegged Acushnet as a trade war casualty and wanted to profit from its demise, so they sold borrowed shares that they expected to replace later at a lower price.

Unfortunately for them, those threatened reciprocal tariffs never came to pass. The Trump administration paused them for 90 days to allow time for the affected countries to negotiate new trade agreements with the United States.

And just like that, all those speculators had to scramble to cover their positions and induced a “short squeeze.” Since April 8, Acushnet’s share price has rallied back above $70. At that share price it is back to where it was on November 7, two days after the general election that swept the Trump administration into office.

Avoiding the Hazard

Now that Acushnet is back to where it was before the Trump trade wars began, it is no longer the screaming buy that my stock screener said it was a month ago. However, that does not mean that it is no longer with owning.

Once new trade agreements with China and the European Union are in place, Wall Street will return its focus to industry leading businesses in growth sectors. And when it comes to the game of golf, Acushnet Holdings is second only to Topgolf Callaway Brands (NYSE: MODG) which just reported declining sales and only one penny of earnings per share during its most recent fiscal quarter.

It appears that the short sellers on Wall Street are now zeroing in on TopGolf Calloway Brands. With that competitor in serious financial difficulty, it may not be long until Acushnet Holdings is at the top of the leaderboard.