The Honorable Eric Cantor
House Majority Leader
303 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Leader Cantor:

On behalf of the nearly 2 million Americans whose jobs are tied to the golf industry, we write in strong support of HR 9, the Small Business Tax Cut Act of 2012, and to congratulate you on committee passage of the legislation this week. HR 9 will allow our small businesses – the bulk of our industry – to retain more capital, invest in their businesses and create more jobs. It’s that simple.

Under your legislation, small businesses would be permitted to deduct 20 percent of their income from taxes. We can’t think of a better way to spur economic growth and get more people back to work. If enacted, HR 9 will allow our small businesses to retain and hire considerably more employees.

National Golf Day is coming on April 18, 2012. We plan to spend a considerable amount of time advocating for HR 9.

Why? Because golf is more than just a game. It’s a $76 billion industry, larger than the motion picture and recording industries. It supports nearly 2 million jobs across the nation. It fuels business activity as varied as manufacturing, real estate, travel and publishing, to name a few. Of the nation’s 16,000 golf courses, more than 10,000 are open to the public, and these account for about 70 percent of the rounds of golf played each year.

We are grateful that HR 9 opts not to pick “winners and losers.” As you know, in the post-Katrina GO Zone Act and subsequent relief bills, including the stimulus, the golf industry, including public golf courses, was excluded from receiving the disaster-related tax assistance available to other small businesses. Somehow golf was lumped together with massage parlors, tanning salons, and liquor stores.

WE ARE GOLF has spent the last two years educating Members of Congress about golf’s profound economic impact around the nation. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have assured us they believe golf’s previous exclusions were irrational and unwise. Bipartisan, bicameral legislation was introduced last year that would remedy golf’s exclusion from disaster tax relief.

We appreciate the fact that you and your colleagues who are sponsoring HR 9 similarly recognized that it’s time to repeal a provision that never made sense in the first place. We are eager to meet with you on National Golf Day and discuss how the 2 million Americans for whom golf is more than just a game can help move this important small business legislation forward.

Sincerely,

Peter Broome, Vice President, Acushnet
Jim Singerling, CEO, Club Manager Managers Association of America
Rhett Evans, CEO, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
Michael Hughes, CEO, National Golf Course Owners Association
Joseph P. Steranka, CEO, Professional Golfers' Association of America
Steve Mona, CEO, World Golf Foundation