John Keats could write some pretty powerful poesy.

‘To Autumn’ always strikes a chord with me.

I’ve even committed one of its most striking lines to memory: “they think warm days will never cease.”

‘They’ could be some members of the golf industry.

Follow up:

They still think the game is in the ascendancy.

They think this current economic slowdown is a mere blip, and soon, real soon, new courses will open and new products will glut the market and it will be 1999 all over again.

Are they mistaken? Yes, sadly.

Last month, I arrived for my second go-round at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.

If this was a measure of the state of the golf industry, then call a paramedic.

It’s not well. It’s in need of some massive transfusions of money.

Participation levels at the show are shrinking faster than my stock portfolio.

The big boys of the manufacturing industry – TaylorMade and Nike – were no-shows – again.

Both seminars I attended were okay – but just okay.

Hard to stir up some passion when a sleepy-eyed speaker is discussing “Golf Profit and Yield Management’ to a half-full room of golf professionals and one jaded and hung over journalist.

Plus, the 9 a.m. start time was too cruel by ten.

Maybe the Tiger Woods’ factor was at work in Orlando, his marital home, and site of the new reality series, Full Contact Golf, starring Woods and his club-yielding soon-to-be ex-wife Elin Nordegren.

The game’s saviour is trying to untangle himself from the procedural spaghetti surrounding a very sticky public humiliation.

His return to the PGA Tour is still not certain.

Apparently he’s suffering from sex addiction, which is a very good thing to be suffering from, but it is also a costly malady – except if you’re a member of Elin’s law team.

Tiger has now become a parody for late night talk show hosts – the Big Bopper of the Tour, on and off the course.

But hey, I’m digressing here. It wasn’t all gloom and doom at the show.

I had this amazing clubhouse sandwich from a vendor on site one day, and the rock group Kansas of 1970s era fame, put on a pretty cool concert for show participants.

Their hit song, ‘Carry On My Wayward Son,’ was like an inspired call to our man Tiger to stop with the frolicking already, and get back to doing what he does best – throwing clubs, acting snarly, ignoring autograph hounds, and winning almost every tournament he enters.

He might be unfaithful, but a stable of fans are still faithful to him and await his royal return.

Still, the PGA Show got me out of my mid-winter funk and allowed me to spend some serious R&R (rum and Red Bull) time around the pool.

Then, a week after returning from Orlando, something wonderful and weird happened: the golf industry in Canada got a bolt of good news.

The folks in Montreal announced a three-year agreement to hold a Champions Tour event there this summer (July 2-4).

Say what?

Synchro Sports and the PGA TOUR jointly announced a multi-year agreement that will see the inaugural 54-hole Montreal Championship at the Fontainebleau Golf Club.

This was a stunner for two reasons: first, it’s one of the few positive announcements from an industry that’s been in freefall since mid-2008; and secondly, the RCGA was totally absent from the press conference – with suggests no official role to play.

Certainly, it’s easy to see why the RCGA is backing away from another pro tour commitment.

The organization is already up to its eyeballs in pro events that are having trouble making money – especially the RBC Canadian Open.

Last year’s bad weather really bit into the chances for turning a profit at Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ontario.

So keeping both it, and the CN Canadian Women’s Open on solid financial footing is critical. Getting things right for this year’s event at St. George’s in Toronto will be a logistical challenge, and all hands will have to be on deck for that one.

Hopefully, the biblical rains that pelted organizers last year and killed the till will cease in ’10 and the RCGA will see some sunny and profit-filled days ahead.

The CN stop at gorgeous St. Charles club in Winnipeg should be an artistic success (the stop always draws the top tour stars), but partnering with the LPGA Tour lately has been like curling beside a dog with fleas. The words “financial juggernaut” and “LPGA Tour” do not go hand in hand.

Maybe this will change with the emergence of Michelle Wie as a potential superstar.

That tour’s best are also much more accommodating with the press and the public – as I witnessed first hand at the Orlando show.

But it does beg the question: how long will sponsors belly up to the bar to fund golf tournaments when other parts of the real world are drowning in red ink and spitting out layoff notices?

The recent release of the RCGA yearend wasn’t exactly pleasant reading, either.

The dwindling membership numbers continue to be a major problem, and probably led to the hiring of former McDonald’s global senior executive Peter Beresford to lead the membership strategy.

An impressive staff of sales people includes former CPGA Executive Director Steve Carroll, and Blair Armitage, past president of the Canadian Society of Club Managers.

Will the RCGA’s strategy of developing revenue from member clubs work? Hopefully it will generate more excitement and cash than its highly acclaimed ‘RCGA Golf Card Program’, which seems to have died a silent death.

This program reminds me of the second Kansas hit, ‘Dust in the Wind.’

Plus, I didn’t quite get Executive Director Scott Simon’s quote from the financial statements: “As we reach out to Canadian golfers in 2010, we will do so with a new consumer facing brand – Golf Canada.”

Does that mean the RCGA moniker is kaput?

But ’09 did have its highlights.

The first-ever Canadian golf Economic Impact Study (we’re a $11.3 billion business) was released to scattered applause, giving the industry some beefy talking points if it wants to lobby Ottawa for some extra cashola.

And that’s exactly what seemed to have happened in Montreal.

The Canadian government granted $2.3 million in funding for the marketing and promotion of the event over a three-year period.

Denis Lebel, Minister of State for Canada Economic Development, said the tournament would help multiply the economic spin-offs generated by this event and others and further strengthen the city’s reputation on the international stage.

That’s press release talk which deciphered means: attention Quebec voters, an election is coming soon, and you shouldn’t forget Mr. Lebel’s good deed when you trudge to the polls and are asked to mark an X beside his name.

The government of Quebec is also thrilled by the broad exposure and the social benefits for the City.

Patrick Bibeau, president of Synchro Sports says: “Our objective is to further position the City of Montreal as an enticing tourist and golf destination and to maximize the economic benefits to the city and the province of Quebec.”

Hey, stirring words that come at a time when the thinning pot of gruel that is golf, needs stirring.

It doesn’t hurt, either, that Ronald Corey, former president of the Montreal Canadiens, is tourney chairman. He’ll bring a blue, blanc and rouge tinge to the gathering.

No doubt the fact golf is now a recognized Olympic Sport is a partial answer to the questions: Why Montreal? Why now? Why a senior stop?

The financial and artistic success of the ’07 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal was a major catalyst to make this happen.

Mike Stevens, president of the Champions Tour, attended last week’s press conference and said as much. “Following the overwhelming success of the 2007 Presidents Cup, our players are excited to be back playing in Canada.”

Remember the President’s Cup?

It was electric. The stands and fairways were filled with ticket-buyers. Corporate money flowed like a river. The USA versus the World format worked, especially for the American winners. Tiger was still Tiger, a paragon of clean living, the boy-next-door type, with pearly whites, and a squeaky clean image to match. He had endorsement deals that would choke a Wall Street executive. The TV crew from NBC Sports did a bang up job – and Johnny Miller, brazen and not so bashful, was effusive in his praise of the Canadian crowds. Even our hometown hero Mike Weir disposed of the PGA’s pin-up boy, Woods – winning in stirring style, a last hole victory in the singles’ finals.

No word if Woods was so distraught by the loss that he immediately headed for Chez Parée on Rue Stanley to drown his sorrows with one of the lovely cocktail waitresses on the scene?

After all, Chez Parée is a “Gentleman’s Club that caters to business men and sports fans and features 85 of the most beautiful nude dancers in Canada.”

No doubt Tiger is all about drinking in the local culture of all the countries he has visited over the years.

Still, the new Montreal event is the Champions Tour, and in the golf world, it’s considered second tier – a retirement home for the fading stars?

Two of them, Bernhard Langer and Peter Jacobsen joined Stevens and Synchro Sports for the announcement.

Jacobsen is a wisecracking cut-up, and epitomizes everything that’s attractive about the tour.

He’s a good player and an engaging personality. Okay, Langer, the tour’s top performer last year is hardly a regular on Comedy Central, but he’s like Robin Williams compared to some of the dead-from-the-neck-up snorers on the regular tour with their manufactured swings and their manufactured personalities.

Still, having Corey Pavin, Nick Price, Mark O’Meara and Tom Kite tee it up this summer hardly stirs the blood of so-so golf fans.

But hey, it’s a start, and sponsors love the demographic that follows a senior event – old, rich, and willing to spend money.

Maybe the winner will flash the V sign for victory on the 54^th hole. Or will that simply be a salute to the new tournament sponsor, Viagra – probably much in use by some of the tour’s top players?

Speaking of sponsors, Viagra hasn’t yet rose to the occasion and committed, but Corey is looking to the business community for some help. “We encourage the Montreal business community to get behind this event in the way of sponsorship and assist our many worthwhile charitable partners,” he said.

No doubt, golf needs a boost right across this country, and it’s good to see Montreal on the golf map for the next three years.

As a fan of golf, and on the other side of 50, I love the Champions Tour.

When it made a stop in my hometown of Mississauga, Ontario a few years back, I volunteered to work in the media tent. It was a blast.

The event was an artistic success. The players were engaging. And the golf was first class.

The course, Mississaugua Golf & Country Club was at its bucolic best.

It’s one of the quirkiest and most loveable layouts in all of golfdom – and should one day host another RBC Canadian Open.

But that’s a conversation for another day.

Today, let’s just be thankful that a new $1.8 million purse is being offered up in Montreal.

Let’s cheer that The Golf Channel and Le Reseau des sports (RDS) will record the tourney for sports fans all over the planet.

With Tiger licking his wounds and the golf industry in the doldrums, we’re a long long way from 1999.

Maybe the loveable lumps of the Champions Tour can lead the charge to new era in golf.

Okay, they might be hobbling some, or charging forward in golf carts, but you get my drift.

This could kick-start a new era for golf in Canada. Maybe everyone will soon start cashing in again – even the RCGA (Golf Canada?)

But, hey, I’m a glass half full type.

Trouble is, my glass is half full of Ensure.

For more info on the Montreal tournament visit  www.championstourmontreal.com

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