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Just how big is golf?

The leading organizations within the industry that comprise Golf 20/20 set out to answer that question and the results may surprise you.

In 2011, the last year for which complete data was available, golf generated $68.8 billion of goods and services in the U.S. When you look at the total indirect and induced impact the game had on the economy it came to $176.8 billion supporting 1.98 million jobs with total wage income of $55.6 billion.

 In keeping with its trend of adding new events in overseas markets, LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan announced on Monday that the newest women’s professional event will be held on Paradise Island, Bahamas. 

The newly minted and as yet unnamed event will be sponsored by Pure Silk and will be played May 23-26 on the Ocean Club Golf Course at the Atlantis Resort.  The tour is also expected to announce a new event in Beijing, bringing the Asian event schedule up to five.

As the 2013 golf season struggles to get off the ground out in Hawaii, I thought this would be a good time to check out the state of golf equipment usage on the world's biggest tours. Thanks to Sports Marketing Surveys – SMS is the company that tracks the gear that each player uses in European Tour events – we have a pretty good snapshot of the clubs that many of the game's best players are favoring these days.

Here are some of SMS's observations from the whole of the 2012 European Tour season:

After The PGA of America rocked the golf world by anointing Tom Watson as U.S. Ryder Cup captain for 2014, observers immediately began speculating that Europe would need to respond with an equally large presence.

Golfweek's Jim McCabe reports that Connecticut native J.J. Henry will pay tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy with the letters, "S.H.E.S." (short for, "Sandy Hook Elementary School," of course) emblazoned on his hat this week in Maui at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

"Whether you come from the area or not, just the devastation and the unthinkable that happened," Henry said.

Golf Digest has released its 2013-2014 list for the top 100 golf courses in America.

Here's the criteria used by the Golf Digest panelists to determine the rankings:

1. Shot Values. How well do the holes pose risks and rewards and equally test length, accuracy and finesse?

2. Resistance to Scoring. How difficult, while still being fair, is the course for a scratch player from the back tees?

The distance gains just keep on coming. In debuting its new X Hot drivers, Callaway Golf engineers say they have achieved gains of 13 yards as compared to their RAZR X Black drivers. These advancements are possible, they said, thanks to a host of design and engineering advancements that make the new drivers faster, hotter and more lightweight than their predecessors.

Jaime Ortiz-Patino, the man who created Valderrama in Spain which hosted the 1997 Ryder Cup, passed away this morning at the age of 82.

According to the Reuters report:

Born to Bolivian parents in Paris in June 1930, Ortiz-Patino created the Valderrama course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, in the mid 1980s and was able to lure the Ryder Cup there in 1997, the first time the competition had been held outside the British Isles.

My friends at TRUE Linkswear shoes have been leaders in bringing the minimalist movement to golf. Their philosophy of efficient design to utilize the anatomical features of the foot as opposed to highly structured and engineered footwear has proven to be a big commercial success. So that's a fancy of way of saying - they design shoes that make you feel as if you're barefoot, but give you the support you need for your golf swing. Tour player Ryan Moore is a part owner of the company - but also wears them while competing. So now they've come out with their 2013 line.