What I'll Remember about 2010: The PGA TOUR's Twitter fever

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Ian Poulter, one of the most popular golfers on Twitter, and Lee Westwood use their phones at THE PLAYERS.

PGATOUR.COM asked its staffers and freelancers what they will remember about the 2010 season. For the archived list of essays, click here.

The 2010 season was a fun one on the PGA TOUR. From the different names we saw on the leaderboard each week to the ways players, fans, media and tournaments engaged with the sport online, 2010 wasn't the year of Twitter (most of that came last year), but it was the year that Twitter, "tweets" and tweeting became mainstream on the PGA TOUR.

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More than 85 players who compete on the PGA TOUR, Nationwide and even Champions Tour have official Twitter accounts. Fans can now find out what their favorite players are doing, thinking and eating or where they're playing and spending their off weeks with just a couple clicks.

To say that following players on Twitter this year has been entertaining is an understatement. Fans saw pictures snapped at Magnolia Lane, TPC Sawgrass, the players' locker rooms and the restaurants where they ate. Zach Johnson (@ZachJohnsonPGA) and Trevor Immelman (@TrevorImmelman) tweeted about their new babies, while Bubba Watson (@BubbaWatson) shared the heartbreak of losing his father to cancer. Each week, players offered to share congratulatory tweets to winners on TOUR and their post-round reflections on what could have been.

Stewart Cink (@StewartCink) leads the pro-golfer Twitterati with over 1.2 million followers, but Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) passed the million mark in early September and gave away prizes to several followers. Third in line is none other than Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods), who took most of 2010 to post his first real tweet, and now has over 250,000 followers waiting for the next one.

If you're still not convinced to sign up for Twitter, you can find tweets from players and tournaments on the PGATOUR.COM FanZone (click the Twitter button). Players from Jamie Lovemark (@JamieLovemark) to Paul Casey (@Paul_Casey) and even Gary Player (@GaryPlayer) all have Twitter accounts now, suggesting the Twitter trend of 2010 will continue into the next year. This means @BoVanPelt will continue to make us laugh with 140-character musings on life and we're sure to see more hilarious videos from Rickie Fowler (@RickieFowlerPGA) and Ben Crane (@bencranegolf).

From what we saw in 2010, the next year will be another fun one, getting to know our favorite players even better through their tweets.

A few of the best in 140 characters or less from 2010:

"Congrats to Phil Mickelson. His wife and mom both battling breast cancer. They inspire us. Livestrong!" --@lancearmstrong

GO TIME!! -- @RickieFowlerPGA (This tweet became a staple for Rickie before each round, much like his head-to-toe orange on Sundays.)

I've never seen a player do an interview to fans strictly via twitter or facebook. Nice job @PGATOUR and @bubbawatson #bubbachat -- @HaileyCobb (Bubba & PGATOUR.COM teamed up to do a Q&A with fans on Twitter in March. Look for more to come in 2011.)

"#TweeOff ends Tuesday night so get in today!! Text "CHOA" to 90999 to donate $5 to Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta.www.choa.org/tweeoff" --@stewartcink (Stewart Cink is a big proponent of children's charities and raised over $70,000 through his Twitter followers in April 2010.)

"So glad to get my laptop back working after throwing it at TPC after missing the cut by 1 shot, I won't be doing that again, so annoying" -- @ianjamespoulter

Got asked for my autograph today at the gas station. Person said "thank you- I can't wait to tell my friends I met Boo Weekley!! -- @BoVanPelt (Whoops!)

We have welcomed Wyatt to the world! Mama is good...baby is good...God is great! Thx for the prayers! -- @zachjohnsonpga on the birth of his second child

"Greatest session in Ryder Cup history!!!! What an effort from Team Europe. Team USA were hit by a Blue Euro Freight train today." -- @Graeme_McDowell after the Sunday Ryder Cup matches

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