The symbol GOLF showed up on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday when the parent company of Titleist went public.Acushnet Holdings, the century-old company in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, that makes the top-selling Titleist golf ball and a full line of golf equipment, raised $329 million in an initial public offering of 19.3 million shares at $17.The price was below projections of $21 to $24 per share.One function of the IPO was an exit strategy for some of the investors. Fortune Brands sold Acushnet in 2011 for $1.23 billion to Fila Korea Ltd. and financial investors, primarily Korea-based Mirae Asset Private Equity. Fila Korea now owns 53 percent after Fridays offering.Titleist listed $1.5 billion in sales in its federal filing, making it the largest golf equipment company.From a running the business point of view, I think the outcome results in greater stability within the capital structure, Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein said. Much like 2011, there will be no change in how we behave in the marketplace. ... Were happy with the way it turned out.The IPO comes at a potentially volatile time for the golf industry, which has been coping with a decline in participation over the last decade.Nike announced in August it was getting out of the golf equipment business, instead focusing on its longtime strength of apparel. Adidas is in the process of selling off its golf properties, the largest of which is TaylorMade.You cant be in denial that the industry was overbuilt, Uihlein said, referring to such things as a glut of golf courses and expectations that the television viewers Tiger Woods attracted would all want to play regularly. That needed a reality check, and coming out the industry was less than it was going in.He said Acushnet would be helped by its stability and history of serving serious players with brands such as Titleist, Foot-Joy shoes and gloves, Scotty Cameron putters and Vokey wedges. Titleist has been the leading golf ball for more than 50 years and is best known since 2000 for its Pro V1.According to a report by Renaissance Capital Research, the lower pricing of the IPO showed concerns about the overall golf industry. It said Acushnet still had a four-year compound annual growth rate of 6 percent and expected it would benefit if the market recovers. The report also said Acushnet would benefit from increased sales in Japan and Korea.Uihlein said if the average golfer spends $1,200 a year on golf equipment, its double that in Japan and Korea.Those markets are premium and we want to grow our position in those markets, he said. Adidas Superstar Baratas . But when it comes to determining if Raymond will find a place on the Leafs roster when training camp concludes in a week, well, that decision will ultimately fall to the head coach. Adidas Superstar Baratas Online . One game after a miserable showing in Oklahoma City, Gay tied a career high with 41 points and the Sacramento Kings cruised to a 114-97 victory at the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. http://www.baratasadidassuperstar.es/ . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Adidas Superstar Baratas España . -- On the field, it was business as usual for Jameis Winston and No. Adidas Superstar Rebajas . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. LOS ANGELES -- He took the field wearing generic baseball clothes -- white pants, navy shirt, navy cap -- looking like a guy in a commercial for a product that is not an official sponsor of Major League Baseball. He ran fast, especially for a 255-pound man with, as the press information helpfully included, 7.3 percent body fat. He threw the ball from the outfield about like an above-average high school player, and he caught fly balls with two hands, as you no doubt expected he would.This is Tim Tebow, in front of talent evaluators from 28 major league teams, standing alone on the USC baseball field with the sun beating down on him, trying to do something it would be all too easy to ridicule.The event was suffused with an unearned air of seriousness. More than 200 people -- scouts, media, helpers -- strode onto the outfield grass to watch him run a 60-yard dash. They stood in center field and down the left-field line while he fought his own feet and muscled his way through a series of throws from right field. They wrote stuff down. They thought about it. They said things like, Hes clearly very athletic, even though that wasnt ever the question.And afterward, his coach Chad Moeller testified to Tebows determination and commitment, as coaches have been doing for more than a decade, and marveled at the effort it takes to get the bat out of his hands when he has had enough for the day. At one point, to demonstrate his commitment to the cause, Tebow opened his hands to allow doubters to gaze upon his bat-callused palms.?Its probably best to leave that symbolism alone.The one thing everybody wanted to know can be condensed into one word: Why? Why would a 29-year-old football icon who hasnt played baseball since his junior year in high school put himself through this? Why would he enter the public forum and subject himself to the snide and withering comments of people who know how hard it is to play this game for money?In some form or another, he was asked those questions. As you might expect, he issued a passionate and fierce rendition of, Why not?The goal would be to have a career in the big leagues, he said. The pursuit of it is to give it all you can, be the best you can, be someone to pursue what I feel passionate about. People will say, What if you fail? What if you dont make it? Guess what? I dont have to live with regret. I did everything I could. I pushed it. I would rather be someone who can live with peace and no regret rather than being so scared I didnt make the effort.Once he got rolling, even the most skeptical among us was at least glancing at the cage, wondering if we should grab a bat and give it a try. Asked about the skeptics, those who question his motivation or suggest a thirst for publicity, those who decry the fact that 28 teams sent people to watch a 29-year-old guy who hasnt played since his junior year in high school when players with real talent cant get a look, Tebow said, Im thankful they dont get to make the choices for my life.He kept going. Its what he does. He didnt have to either, because he could have mouthed a few platitudes and it probably wouldnt have affected the decision of some team to put him in a minor league uniform for a few months, if only to sell a few million dollars worth of T-shirts.With Tebow, youre encouraged to distrust your eyes. Yeah, he looked like a tight end in the outfield, falling down at one point picking up a ball off the warning track. He couldnt pull a pitch from former big leaguers Chad Smith and David Aardsma. He two-hopped a throw from medium right to third base, and it was up the line, too.But then the man staarts talking, and you wonder if maybe you were wrong.dddddddddddd. Maybe you were being too harsh. After all, he did hit a few batting-practice fastballs high into the trees beyond right field. Maybe this, this mixed bag of results at the end of several months of work, is just the first step toward this man proving everyone wrong. You come away thinking, Damn, does this guy ever try. And does he ever care. He is the most overtly trying-est and caring-est dude of his generation.If you fail, if you fall on your face, thats OK, he said. When did that become such a bad thing? When did pursuing what you love become a bad thing, regardless of the result?In January, Tebow was working out on the USC practice football field, next to the baseball field. After he finished his workouts with quarterback coach Tom House, Tebow would wander over to the baseball field, where a group of major and minor league players were getting ready for spring training.Ryan Rowland-Smith, a former Seattle Mariners reliever, was one of the players working out. They werent really interested in Tebow; they were there to get ready for spring training. It was serious business. But Tebow kept hanging around, picking up bats and wondering if he could take a few swings.I could tell he wanted to have a hit, Rowland-Smith said. He kept asking. You know, guys are trying to get their work in. They want to face good hitters to get ready. He just kept talking about the itch.Its impossible to know what was going on over on the football field with Tebow and House going through drills to improve Tebows delivery for roughly the millionth time. Quick release, elbow up -- whatever it was, you have to figure, in the quiet of January, those drills pushed Tebow closer to the realization that he would never again play quarterback in the NFL. And so he drifted over to the baseball field, with nothing more than high school credentials to his name, asking for a turn.And one day Rowland-Smith relented. Like a guy letting his little brother have a turn, he told Tebow to get in the batters box. He threw him a few fastballs at about 80 percent, and when Tebow squared one up, Rowland-Smith, a left-hander, broke off a curve.He missed it by three feet, Rowland-Smith said. He was serious, and so was I. I wanted to get my work in, so I threw a breaking ball. Not a great one, not a bad one. When I face hitters, 30 seconds into it I can tell the difference between a pro hitter and someone who isnt.He lets that hang there. Hes not making judgments, just telling a story. If he wasnt Tim Tebow, there wouldnt be people out there to watch him, Rowland-Smith says. But more power to him. People are drawn to him.Tebow might have given up on that curveball, but that doesnt mean he gave up. After all, Tebow never gives up. Thats why he went to camp with the Jets, and camp with the Patriots, and camp with the Eagles. Its why he enlisted Moeller to coach him and the powerhouse agents at CAA to represent him. Its why he didnt work out in private and then sign with an independent league team.Does he refuse to give up because he cant? Because hes addicted to the rush, to the adulation, to the idea that he can do precisely what all those believers believe he can, and all those detractors believe he cant? Thats the part of why even he cant answer, and its exactly why its hard to shake the image of the guy at USC on those January days, sensing on one field the end of something, and on the other the beginning of something else. ' ' '