"In an odd sort of way, golfers, the fans who follow them and the writers who try to understand them have found a common place to hang out -- Twitter."

Ron Sirak looks at Twitter's impact in the world of golf and concludes:

Its functions are diverse -- promotional, informational and humorous -- but its impact is unified: To make the world a smaller place, reducing it all the way down to 140 characters. And that's clearly a comfort zone millions are finding to be quite cozy. Clearly, it is a world of characters that is having a population explosion.

Also, Alex Myers posts this list of golfers and media Twitter accounts, with links.

Just curious here since it's a slow news day, but might we use this story and comment section for those using Twitter to voice your thoughts? How do you read Tweets? What do you think of getting blog or website feeds as Tweets?

I know a lot of you have Twitter fatigue, we get it. But I'd like this to be a more constructive thread about where you see Twitter going as a news and information source. There will also be a chance to discuss this in November when I post a Golfdom feature on how Twitter is impacting the golf course maintenance world.

Comments

[Mike Nuzzo]

When ever I want - I get exactly the type of articles I like to read and can explore to my hearts content.
And as current as possible.

[Sir Real]

Twitter has got to be one of the most worthless endeavors in the history of mankind.

[OWGR Fan]

Sir Real I agree with you. I don't use Twitter. And while I understand why people use certain sites such as Facebook, MySpace or whatever the flavor of the day is for "social networking" they can go away as well as far as I'm concerned.

[Snidely]

While I text sometimes, and I certainly email, I can't possibly understand the need to find yet another way to communicate! I'm sure that my age (54) has something to do with my reluctance to join Twitter, and the relatively little time I have to do mindless things (now spent reading your blog) the need to tweet, let alone reading others ramble on (of course in 140 characters or less, certainly fewer than this post) is completely lost on me!

[court]

"Twitter fatigue" ? Not me. Early on, I got myself innoculated and have never felt the desire, or "hunger" as it is called by Twitter vampires, to Tweet more than once.

[Tombo]

It's like anything else. Some people really mine its value - (virtually) real-time point-of-view publishing unavailable anywhere else. Others use it simply to advertise to a market. And most are somewhere in between. I'm personally not a big enough fan of *anyone* to care what they ate for breakfast. But that's not a Twitter problem; it's a Twit problem!

I think the idea of real-time information regarding courses, conditions and relevant conversations can be useful and informative. I'm just generally not willing to wade through the muck to get there.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Never forget. The root of twitter is twit.

[keitht]

If you don't use Twitter how do you know it's useless?

If you manage the list of people you follow well, it can be a remarkable resource for up to the minute information and link.

That said, I have "unfollowed" a number of golfers.

[Mike Nuzzo]

You guys are funny...
Sir Real must still be mad that Miley Cyrus deleted her account....

[swingplane]

I have a twitter account but only used it around the U.S. Open to follow Jenkins. Twice since I have received notification that some complete stranger half a world away was following me.
My Facebrick account is dormant, too Big Brother-ish and likely to colony collapse disorder.
Not that I'm paranoid or anything...





swingplane

[OWGR Fan]

Keitht the issue is that I and many others really have no desire to follow anybody. Celebrity or not. Person of importance or not. Most of us simply don't care what others are doing or posting 24/7/365 or have any desire to hear or read about it. If it works for you thats great.

The people of importance (work, family, friends) that I need to get hold of I can call, text or email and they can do the same to reach me. For me that's more than enough communication channels in a world that is shrinking and becoming less private by the minute via technology.

[OB]

Twitter is my primary news source now. Instead of surfing countless websites, I just have Tweetie for the desktop open and various sites like this on my list of following, and I get links to breaking news and interesting stuff i want to read. Saves time and it's fun to also read the occasional idiotic insight from tour pro or celebrity, along with plenty of things that make me laugh.

Geoff: I'd like to read more short observations from you, besides the blog post feed. Some of my favorites are the miscellaneous observations from people like Gary VanSickle or Doug Ferguson.

[keitht]

OWGR Fan - I agree to an extent but if you follow the right people you get "here's a link to a great article in publication X" (which I otherwise would never have come across) rather than "I'm having some toast right now". Of course you have to pick the right people.

[Pat Melvin]

When grass starts to grow at speeds of 3 inches a day and I NEED to know what time the mowers cut the greens at Pebble Beach, then I will get a Twitter account.........