Irony in Ink Form: Back to Back Golf World Articles About Twitter

Golf World has two stories this week about Twitter.  One is by Ron Sirak about what he perceives to be the impact of Twitter on the golf world.  I think Sirak addresses a slew of issues and caveats about Twitter for everyday folk, pro golfers, and pro writers.  (He conveniently leaves out bloggers like me, but that's not the point.)

The other is an article by Alex Myers that pretty much just lists the male & female pros, instructors, and professional writers (again, no bloggers) on the microblogging site.

While the pieces are perfectly fine, it kind of proves an ironic point.  A lot of times, golf does not move at the right speed for the modern world.

Twitter has been around for - what? - a year or so now.  And now we're getting to a piece on its impact?  That just seems completely out of whack to me, especially given that us bloggers have been using it to promote and create content for almost a year.  And it's done wonders for the way that I communicate with my audience. 

I've made virtual friendships with readers, working relationships with professional writers and tours, and just had a good ole time on Twitter.  All the praises that I've lauded on Twitter in the past can be reinserted ::here::.

The point is that the golf community that has been built on Twitter has been around for quite some time now.  Yeah, there are still people within our lil golf world that are yet to - and may never - adopt the thing.  Tim Finchem will never Twitter.  I defy him to finish a complete sentence in 140 characters or less.  He can't.

Still, this thing is pretty mature as far as technology goes.  In technology terms, maturity happens quickly.  Then the tinkering happens.  At least that's how the tech savvy set sees it.  (Sue Sylvester reference there.)

Remember when Facebook came out in 2001?  And how it's just getting popular now with people who have kids in high school and college?  That's what golf is like when it comes to getting with modern times.  It is glacial.  Sometimes, that's not a bad thing.  The manners and friendship in golf are something that should never get sped up by our culture off of the course.  But that's not to say that we can't use our cell phones away from the links and feel like we're putting our golf shoes on in the parking lot.

Golf can accept technology and use it to grow the game.  The PGA Tour and PGA of America were all reved up about their iPhone apps.  That's great!  The use of video, Facebook, and all that good stuff.  We're getting better.

There's still a small rift between professional writing and independent blogs, though that's subsiding, too.  It is still very telling, though, when mainstream independent bloggers - the Deadspins of the world - know golf isn't that far along compared to them.  And they do know.  Again, we're getting there.

The end message that I'm trying to preach is that golf should be trying to lead the sporting pilgrims on the Oregon Trail - not the group in the back that is dying of dysentary.