The recreational golf season is now underway in the chillier parts of North America.

The bite of winter has been replaced by the cool winds of spring but there is still a cold feel to the start of the season that goes bone-deep.

In Canada, a huge question mark hangs over the golf course industry: how profitable a season will it be this year?

The United States continues to plow through the worst recession - or depression - since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In Canada, the poisoned waters are just beginning to lap up against its economic shores.

Yes, jobs have been lost; yes, the auto industry is in turmoil just as it is in America.

But the residential real estate market is still intact, although prices are falling. The Canadian banking system is the envy of the world and is healthy - although that is very much a relative term, these days.

So, will golfers continue to be consumers or will they batten down the hatches?

Golf course owners aren't waiting to find out. The season's too short to simply to hope things will work out.

There's a good story published on how Canada's golf course industry is preparing to meet the challenge.

If the cardinal rule of real estate is "location, location, location", then this year's mantra in the recreational golf industry must be "innovate, innovate, innovate".