HERZOGENAURACH, Germany — Adidas AG Chief Executive Officer Herbert Hainer, who in May praised the "strong reception" the company's new golf drivers were getting from pros and duffers alike, did an about-face Thursday.

The $425 R15 and $300 AeroBurner drivers are, in fact, losing the battle to the competition, Hainer said, in announcing that Adidas will seek buyers for some or all of the company’s TaylorMade business. Now he must determine what the money-losing asset is worth and who’d want it at a time when golf’s popularity has ebbed.

“The problem which we have is the R15 and the AeroBurner are not selling,” Hainer said on a call with reporters. “It’s also fair to say our competitors are getting better.”

The focus at first is on finding a buyer for Adams, a sub- brand within the golf unit that makes clubs for beginners, and the Ashworth polos and cardigans business. But Hainer isn’t ruling out exiting the entire business if his investment bank, Guggenheim Partners LLC, advises. A culture shift is partly to blame: weekend players are aging, millennials aren’t taking up the sport, and Tiger Woods is not exactly a big draw anymore.

“Golf equipment demand is undoubtedly going through a tricky patch and it’s getting harder to envisage a significant recovery at least in the near-term,” said Fred Speirs, an analyst at UBS in London.

Adidas' TaylorMade golf division had 913 million ($995 million) in sales last year, but valuing it is difficult. A buyer could pay 80 percent to 100 percent of 2015 sales on an enterprise value basis, Speirs said. Golf supplier Callaway Golf Co. is trading at 0.9 times forward sales on an enterprise basis, and Titleist ball maker Acushnet Co. sold for $1.23 billion, or one times sales, in 2011.

Adidas got into golf when it bought French ski and skate company Salomon in 1997. Golf peaked in the early 2000s, thanks to Woods’ popularity, but has lost about 5 million golfers in the past decade, according to researcher Euromonitor.

TaylorMade sales plummeted 32 percent between 2012 and 2014. In the second quarter, revenue slumped 26 percent excluding currency shifts.

There are no obvious suitors for the unit. Among the sporting goods makers, Nike Inc. gets less than 5 percent of sales from golf and is unlikely to invest in the sport. Under Armour Inc. sells golf apparel, and could potentially use a deal to add clubs, he said. Representatives for Nike and Under Armour declined to comment.

“The only interested buyers could likely be investment funds who could restructure it and sell it to someone else,” said Cedric Rossi, an analyst at Bryan Garnier & Co. in Paris.

By Aaron Ricadela; editors: Matthew Boyle, Phil Serafino.