Just in case you happened to be in a good mood when you started reading this, let me just sort of toss out a few words, names, and phrases:

Foreclosure. Lay-off. Stock market nosedive. Unemployment. Bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers. Auto Industry. Home value. Bank failure. $3000 per second.

OK. Now that you’re good and depressed, let me bring you back up again. (I feel like a pharmaceutical company!)

This miserable economic mess we are in might actually give a few lucky, lesser-known golf equipment manufacturers a leg up on their big-name competitors.

Here’s how I figure it: Despite the overall decline in golf equipment sales that is all but inevitable under these conditions, some golfers are going to buys some new sticks. (Like Bear Stearns middle managers who are still getting bonuses out of the TARP money, just not as much as they think they deserve.)

Chances are, these folks are going to look around for economical deals. And it is precisely the smaller companies – those without millions invested in endorsement contracts with Tour players – who can offer some pretty solid clubs at pretty reasonable prices.

I enter into evidence the e-mail I just got from Tour Edge, which is offering a “Recession Buster” deal:

For about $800, you can get a complete set of QLS clubs, from driver down to PW. For about $100, you could toss in a putter and a SW. None of the big-name companies can offer you this sort of quality for this sort of price.

$900 and you’d be loaded for bear.

Or bear markets, anyway.

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