Birdies and Tweets

In an address on the state of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), commissioner Carolyn Bivens encouraged the players on her tour to use Twitter during competitive rounds as a way to connect with fans. Even though, she admitted, this would be an implicit breach of golfing etiquette. The response from two of the tour's most prominent players was swift and decisive.

Paula Creamer, a ten-time winner on the LPGA tour and an avid user of Twitter, issued the following tweet soon after the commissioner's statement:

I will not be twittering in my round. It should not happen in any sport. The players have already told the tour no way.

Morgan Pressel, another tour champion, wrote this on Twitter in response to a fan's comment:

Thanks for the luck and NO I will not be tweeting when I play.

Photo Credit:Keith AllisonAfter fielding numerous complaints similar to those by Ms. Creamer, pictured at right, and Ms. Pressel, the commissioner clarified her remarks: "While the LPGA does not support, nor has it ever encouraged, any kind of interaction with social media during tournament play, we do believe social media is as important to golf as it is to all sports."

The LPGA has been under considerable economic stress of late correlating with the downturn in the economy. In fact, to use a prominent example, the organizers of the LPGA Corning Classic, a fixture on the tour for 31 years, withdrew sponsorship of their premiere event. The LPGA is certainly not alone: the four major sports organizations as well as NASCAR have seen both reduced attendance numbers and declining revenues.

So it is no surprise that Ms. Bivens, in an attempt to solidify and expand the LPGA fan base, encouraged the use of Twitter by the players. At first glance, it seems like a reasonable idea. Golf has many natural breaks during each round of play -- the walk after a tee shot or the time after a successful putt provide ample opportunity to whip out a cell phone and issue a tweet. So why not give fans an unparalleled account of one's thoughts and feelings at that very moment? Such a real-time connection with fans is simply unattainable at post-round press conferences or newspaper accounts written by a third party.

But the backlash from the very players who would presumably benefit from this idea was striking in its ferocity. One intriguing aspect is that the most critical comments were not from the older generation of players who, perhaps, may not feel comfortable with the idea of such technological interactions with fans. Rather, the dissent came from the younger players who already use Twitter extensively and have thousands of followers. It was they who recognized that a line was being crossed that threatened the integrity and tradition of the game.

With its history stretching back hundreds of years to its origins in Scotland, Golf has cultivated a deep tradition that is particularly sensitive to change. One hopes that Ms. Bivens would have been more cognizant of such tradition and its strong pull on both the players and fans of golf. One can't sacrifice the integrity of the game for the debatable prospect that using Twitter can increase the popularity of the sport.

So much of the success of golf depends not on the physical, but rather the mental part of the game. Legendary golfer Bobby Jones famously quipped: "Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course -- the distance between your ears." Having Twitter as a distraction, not just to the player using it but to others in the vicinity, can make anyone question whether a player's concentration was affected. Was a crucial putt missed because more time was spent wondering what to tweet rather than analyzing the contours of the green?

The intimate intrusion of the outside world can give the perception -- whether rooted in reality or not -- that the outcome of play on the golf course was not dependent solely on the skill of the players taking part. Ms. Bivens was wise to retract her support of support of such a policy. In the long run, it could have relegated a struggling tour to second-class status in the world of professional sports.