The Grateful Golfer looks at the importance of social media in marketing the young stars of modern golf.

Professional golf is attracting great players from around the world. The draw of the ‘life of a jet setter’ is appealing, as well as the very large ‘purses’ up for grabs each week. For years the European and PGA Tours led the golfing world because of their dominance within the printed media. But, this dominance is starting to change.

The discussion of why the golfing world is slowly changing can easily be traced to economics, demographics, or the advance in equipment technology; however, those are only a few of the reasons. The real reason for the changes is rooted in the cultural and media evolution happening around the world.

The main reason young golfers are quickly becoming a worldwide phenomenon is their use of social media. It is important to have a great golf swing, but not critical to being successful as a professional golfer. If any young sports prodigy wants to make it at the elite level of sports, they must market their talents as much as having talent to compete. Many followers of golf want a more personal touch from their favourite player that can only be provided through social media.

The following players are the rising stars of golf, who, over the next ten years, will be the future Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or Adam Scott’s. These stars are all in their 20s and appear to have the entire package to dominate golf. Their presence on ‘the net’ is only improving their ‘brand’.

Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland is an easy choice. With 2.21 million followers on Twitter, he is the hottest ticket in golf. The 2014 season was spectacular; however, during the previous two years many pundits thought his equipment change was a disaster! Throughout his struggles, he maintained a positive presence through social media and his star power grew.

Rickie Fowler

Rickie Fowler, USA, has 837 thousand followers on Twitter and is extremely influential. His finishes in the Majors in 2014 helped propel him to the top of the rising star power rankings. However, with only one win in 2012, it is difficult to fathom his popularity. Social media has supercharged his star status and next to Rory McIlroy, he is the most popular rising star to the golfing masses.

Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth, USA, has 169 thousand followers on twitter. Winning the Australian Open this past weekend, Spieth shows he has the skills to win anywhere. Comparing his 2014 to 2013 season, his performance was poor, but in every tournament his popularity grew. Not surprisingly, so did his presence in cyber space.

Hideki Matsuyama & Sang-Moon Bae

Hideki Matsuyama, Japan, and Sang-Moon Bae, South Korea, have a very small following on social media. New names to golf, they still make every power ranking website, as players to watch. As their presence grows on social media, so will their popularity in the West grows.

Victor Dubuisson

Victor Dubussion, France, has 33.3 thousand followers on Twitter. He was incredible at the 2014 Ryder Cup and helped lead the Europeans to another victory. Not big on the PGA Tour, he is quickly climbing the European Tour power rankings and sits at 17 on the world golf rankings. His popularity in golf is growing and social media is helping to fuel that growth.

Jason Day

Jason Day, Australia, has 47.9 thousand followers on Twitter. After fighting injuries last year, he is ready to vie for the top of the golfing world. His popularity is growing exponentially and through social media, he is a tremendous draw at any golf tournament.

Social media is an unprecedented medium in the world of professional sports. Rising stars use it as a method to market their popularity. With the exception of Rory McIlroy, the players above have not won many tournaments, but social media lights up when they do anything on and off the golf course.

These and many other players have embraced technology as way to earn an extremely comfortable living playing the sport they love – win or not.

Golf is evolving. Social media is here to stay in one form or another. It helps grow the next “household name’ in golf quicker than ever before. It is not a stretch to connect social media and financial success in golf. Young players are embracing all forms of marketing especially social media. It provides that up-close and personal touch sports fans crave, but beware it is also a double-edged sword!

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