Rough times ahead for grassroots golf?

    Tom Sweetman, for CNN

    Updated 1201 GMT (2001 HKT) January 12, 2015

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    Rory McIlroy (left) hosts a junior golf clinic in New York in 2012. The world No. 1 is an ambassador for junior golf -- a role that could be vital in keeping the younger generation interested in the sport.
    Photos: Golf state of the game report
    Follow me? – Rory McIlroy (left) hosts a junior golf clinic in New York in 2012. The world No. 1 is an ambassador for junior golf -- a role that could be vital in keeping the younger generation interested in the sport.
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    Tiger Woods' career has had a massive impact on interest and participation in golf and many hope McIlroy can have the same effect. "We had a good spell with Tiger Woods during the 1990s and 2000s and Rory is positioned to be another person who can do that," TaylorMade CEO Ben Sharpe told CNN.
    Photos: Golf state of the game report
    Out of the Woods? – Tiger Woods' career has had a massive impact on interest and participation in golf and many hope McIlroy can have the same effect. "We had a good spell with Tiger Woods during the 1990s and 2000s and Rory is positioned to be another person who can do that," TaylorMade CEO Ben Sharpe told CNN.
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    Golf at grassroots level is in a state of decline, with 400,000 people leaving the sport in the past year in the U.S., according to the National Golf Foundation.
    Photos: Golf state of the game report
    Grassroots decline – Golf at grassroots level is in a state of decline, with 400,000 people leaving the sport in the past year in the U.S., according to the National Golf Foundation.
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    "As an industry we can't put our head into the sand, we have to evolve and continually modernize," Sharpe says. "What we want to do is get golf clubs in people's hands and get them hitting golf balls."
    Photos: Golf state of the game report
    Head in the sand? – "As an industry we can't put our head into the sand, we have to evolve and continually modernize," Sharpe says. "What we want to do is get golf clubs in people's hands and get them hitting golf balls."
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    Eighteen-time major winner Jack Nicklaus is in favor of seeing a quicker and cheaper game of golf introduced. "I'd quite like to play a game that I can get some reasonable gratification out of very quickly and something that is not going to cost me an arm and a leg," Nicklaus told CNN.