Tweeting Sports News Goes Professional

Today, CBSSports.com unveiled a new form of NFL reporting called RapidReports. It is basically a concept like Twitter, but on their own site. Sports Business Daily notes that reporters will be assigned for each NFL squad and their beat will be to report on happenings with the team in two to three sentence blurbs that will appear on team pages. This may turn into an excellent tool for both training camps happenings that often go underreported, or for fantasy sports where live happenings before gametime can impact players' teams.

The concept, though, should be used when it comes to golf. As far as the microblogging concept goes, golf is probably the sport best suited to the idea. Reporters, bloggers, and fans alike have been using Twitter at professional events to relay live events as they happen. Additionally, microblogging allows reporters to cover more than just the lead groups. They can cover developing and minor stories in quick blurbs without having to go through the editorial cycle. Finally, golf microblogging allows writers to communicate events to fans, giving them more "inside the ropes" access with text, pictures, and video.

While Twitter has been great for that, I cannot help but wonder if the PGA Tour or LPGA Tour would consider instituting something like this right on their home page alongside of the leaderboard. After all, the leaderboard certainly tells an important part of the action, but supplementing live leaderboard updates with microblogging could go a long way in improving professional golf coverage.