Palm-Aire's Collins aims for golf green.(The Guest Report)(Palm-Aire Country Club; Gary Collins, president of South Florida Chapter of the National Golf Course Owners Association)

Helping turn around Palm-Aire Country Club might have been a chip shot compared with Gary Collins' next challenge: marketing South Florida as a regional destination for golfing.

For the effort to succeed, Collins would have to convince golf course owners to pour money into a campaign that would emphasize the region's overall golfing allure rather than the attributes of each course. Collins, president of the South Florida Chapter of the National Golf Course Owners Association, once heard a similar effort in Myrtle Beach, S.C., described as "like trying to herd a bunch of cats."

Still, Myrtle Beach has developed a $5 million to $10 million annual marketing campaign that has grown from only five or six golf courses 30 years …