Social Media Golf Celebrities and their Impact on Golf

Do you follow Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson...Paige Spiranac... on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook? If so you are not alone as followers are in the millions for these golfers. Is it because of how they play or what they say?

From professional golfers becoming popular via contentious tweets to phenom beauties making a name for themselves on Instagram, the impact golfers have on social media has been an enormous game changer.

Advertisers are jumping on board the social media express, tying into the celebrity to get their product noticed; the monetization value of a single tweet from Tiger Woods was calculated at $33,911 while a single McIlroy tweet was $16,161 with Ian Poulter valued at $11,982. So, the next time you are reading posts from your favorite golfer, think about the subliminal impact it is having on you.

Golf, the once exclusive pastime for the rich and famous, has gone mainstream but has it abandoned its core values to gain visibility and does it now have to right the ship?

Listed below are a few Social Golf moments to consider: do you think, overall, that social media has helped or hurt the game using these examples? 

1. There are different levels of enjoyment within the game of golf for the fan, from watching great tournament shots to learning about the new equipment from Ping, TaylorMade and Titleist and looking for the upcoming great stars who can be "the next Tiger Woods". Instagram has helped launch the career of Paige Spiranac much like the way Justin Bieber was found on Youtube.com. A million social media fans have catapulted this good golfer into the Dubai Ladies Masters despite not officially qualifying for LPGA or LET status.

One of the top female golfers and 4th in the Rolex Rankings, Shanshan Feng has only 933 Instagram followers (2,556 Twitter followers) compared with the 1 + million (884,000 Instagram) Spiranac followers. Although Feng lets her sticks do the talking on the golf course, she needs to gain similar influence or she may be watching from the sidelines over time as others line their pockets via the power of well-placed photos and tweets. Global publicity for the LET and LPGA increases purses and the internet has been chosen as the delivery vehicle.

Happy holidays! Ready for gifts🎅🏻🎄🎁 #merryxmas pic.twitter.com/HnQJSDqTf1

— Shanshan Feng (@shanshanfengCHN) December 24, 2016

2. Did we really need to know that? Is it interesting to you to know what a golfer had for breakfast and/or do we really need to see guys like Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler hamming it up, shirtless on vacation?

Thousands upon thousands of fans follow the top guys in golf (Spieth has 1.71 million followers) which is also great for his sponsors who help strategically place their equipment in threads and posts; Titleist ProV1x and Under Armour. The tweet below for the Titleist ProV1 golf ball received 294 retweets and over 2,000 likes:

First week with the new 2017 @Titleist ProV1x was a success. No surprise it's the #1ballingolf pic.twitter.com/ZSN6tEVzyV

— Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth) November 30, 2016

Have you tried these any of these golf brands because of a post tweeted from a famous golfer? If so, you are not alone. Advertisers, who once saw results in a TV commercial during a round of golf, are finding that well-placed posts and online videos are equally effective, using brand ambassadors to relate to consumers. It's easy and cost effective to get the message out using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and, you get a lot more bank for your buck.

What may be a boon to advertisers may also hurt them as we can also "read" the thoughts of golfers when they are at odds with the game. One very candid, prominent social golfer, Ian Poulter, lets fans know when they (or the system) are out of bounds but this type of power can also be dangerous.

For example, after calling Ian Poulter an unfavorable "name" on Facebook, an average-joe deliveryman was the recipient of one of Poulter's effective posts causing the man's place of business to apologize to Poulter and to re-rout the driver to a different office. Ian Poulter nearly cost a man his job; it's easy to get attention when you have over two-million followers and the power of social media in your corner. He is heard, seen and can get someone fired with words as he has previously done.

Although the man was clearly wrong costing Poulter his shot to land in the drink, Poulter, who makes millions each year, could have cost this worker his livelihood...one-upmanship in the social sphere? 

Lesson learned...watch what you say and to whom you say it on social media.

3. Good can come of it! Golf social media celebs can also make a positive impact on the game. Many players post about their favorite causes, foundations and those of the PGA Tour, bringing great visibility and more donations to help others in need.

My pop would be proud of how the #heroworldchallenge has grown. We’ve raised more than $26M for youth programs. –TW pic.twitter.com/aAETXVMEyf

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 1, 2016

Do you think professional players' social media impact on golf has been positive? State your case in our golf blog comments section below and tag/follow us on Twitter @Golf4Beginners.

Golf for Beginners wishes all of our friends and followers a very Happy New Year.
Thanks for reading our blogs; we look forward to your thoughts, shares and retweets for 2017.

Texan Holds ‘Em: Stanford’s HSBC Champions Win Ends 14-year American LPGA drought

Angela Stanford ended a wait of fourteen years and four months for an American victory in a LPGA golf event in Asia when she won a four-player play-off at the HSBC Women’s Champions at Singapore’s Tanah Merah Country Club. Tim Maitland reports.

 Stanford won with a par on the third play-off hole, finally knocking Korean teenager Jenny Shin out of the reckoning after Korea’s world number two Na Yeon Choi and China’s Shanshan Feng had been eliminated in two previous trips up the tough 18^th hole. All four had finished on 10-under-par 278 for the tournament.

SINGAPORE - FEBRUARY 26:  Angela Stanford of the USA with the winners trophy after the final round of the HSBC Women's Champions at the Tanah Merah Country Club on February 26, 2012 in Singapore.  (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Amazingly, the last victory for a US player in the LPGA’s long history of staging tournaments in Asia was Juli Inkster’s win at the Samsung World Championship of Women’s Golf, from an invitational field of sixteen LPGA players, in Seoul, South Korea in October 1997. The 2012 HSBC Women’s Champions was the 39^th event in the region since then.

Of the six Asian events on the LPGA’s 2012 schedule, the last to boast an American champion was the Mizuno Classic in Japan which was won by Betsy King in 1993 when it was known as the Toray Japan Queens Cup. King’s win, at the Lions Country Club in Hyogo, was the last US victory against a larger field, over 18 years ago.

“I’m the first American to win in Singapore. That’s pretty cool!” said the thirty-four-year-old Texan, unaware at the time of how long her compatriots’ drought stretched back.

“It’s funny; sitting at the Pro-Am party (on the Wednesday before the tournament) I was thinking we haven’t had an American win this thing yet. Honestly, I thought, well, I’m an American. Might as well give it a go!”

Stanford, whose last win was in 2009, didn’t do it the easy way; only converting the fourth of the putts she had to win the tournament. The cruelest of those was in regulation play after a violent thunderstorm struck with the final group on the 18^th tee and all their rivals safely in the clubhouse. After a 90-minute delay, play resumed with nineteen-year-old Shin leading Stanford by one shot, but the young Korean found a water hazard off the tee and made double bogey, while Stanford’s first chance for victory went begging when she missed a par putt from around five feet.

Making pars throughout the play-off, Stanford adds her name to a roll of honour that consisted only of players to have been rated the best in the world game, from defending champion Karrie Webb through Ai Miyazato and Jiyai Shin to the winner of the inaugural event in 2008, Lorena Ochoa.

“I feel extremely honoured to be in that group of players and to be the first American to get a win is pretty special. Everybody knows this is one of the premier events on tour and always has the best players,” Stanford said.

For Shin, who won the US Girls Junior Championship as a thirteen-year old in 2006, there was the whole range of emotions.

“It’s a little bit of everything; I’m very excited but I’m very disappointed at the same time. The tee shot on the eighteenth was all from nervousness. In the play-off I wasn’t nervous at all. I was really comfortable in the play-off. I really feel like I can do this again. I’m very surprised about how well I did. I’m happy… kind of: happy-sad. I’m accepting it,” she revealed.

Shin’s wasn’t the only hard luck story. China’s Shanshan Feng fell a fraction short of becoming the first player from her country to win an LPGA event, the third time in her short career that she has had to settle for second place.

Current world number one Yani Tseng of Chinese Taipei, who was Jenny Shin’s main challenger for much of the day, finished one shot back in fifth place. She might have won had her approach shot to the 17^th hole gone in for eagle rather than catching the lip of the hole as it span back, leaving her a birdie putt that she missed.

“I do feel disappointed. I just needed a little more luck. I‘ve been very close for two years. Hopefully next year I won’t be disappointed,” said Tseng, who was aiming for back-to-back wins after her victory at the Honda LPGA Thailand the week before.

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Read about "China Golf Firsts"

SINGAPORE - FEBRUARY 22:  (L to R) In Kyung Kim of Korea, Michelle Wie of the USA, Morgan Pressel of the USA, Yani Tseng of Taiwan, Beatriz Recari of Spain, Melissa Reid of England, Suzann Pettersen of Norway, Se Ri Pak of Korea, Paula Creamer of the USA and Natalie Gulbis of the USA during a Welcome Reception Photo Call at the Raffles Hotel prior to the start of the HSBC Women's Champions at the Tanah Merah Country Club on February 22, 2012 in Singapore, Singapore  (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

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