The golf industry is suffering from a generation gap.

A drop in participation rates and disinterest among young people, particularly millennials, have sent both the retail and sporting ends of the business scrambling for a new strategy.

For the fifth year, overall participation in golf fell in 2014 as measured by the number of U.S. individuals who reported playing on a course at least once, according to Sports & Fitness Industry Association data.

But the participation rates of people aged 18 to 34 fell roughly 13% in 2013 from 2009, while their rates for other active sports like running rose 29%, according to SFIA data. Greg Nathan, senior vice president of the National Golf Foundation, notes that the overall number of U.S. golfers has hovered around 25 million for each of the past three years, still down from the high of 30 million in 2003.

"It's slow, takes a long time to play; it's expensive," said Matt Powell, a SportsOneSource analyst. "As a sport it doesn't reflect the kind of values millennials like—diversity, inclusion. Golf tends to not be those things."