tiM rosaforte
golf reporting in the modern age
i set my alarm for 5:30 sunday morning, not to get up
and play golf but to get up
and watch golf.
i knew he would love the
crack on twitter.”
as westwood was mak-
ing his third straight birdie
and poulter was showing
the short-game magic of a
seve ballesteros, i grabbed
my iphone and sent a text
to westwood’s manager,
chubby chandler: “things
are getting interesting, and
i don’t mean the twitter ac-
counts.”
pointing his index finger at
the camera, while renton
laidlaw repeated kaymer’s
goals from the beginning of
the year: win a major. play
on a winning ryder cup
team. and win the race
to dubai. the 25-year-old
german was three for three.
his way to the clubhouse,
not knowing if you’d get the
cold shoulder or a useful
quote.
meaningful golf after
thanksgiving? sure. it
was the final round of the
dubai world championship, where the no. 1 player
in the world made a run in
a land not so far, far away.
i booted up my computer,
checked the scores from
Jumeirah golf estates, then
clicked over to the twitter
account of the player leading the tournament to note
where he was eating dinner
(nobu) and what his son
thought of orlando magic
center dwight howard.
within minutes, from
7,791 miles away, i got a
response: “great finish to a
big year.”
i returned to westwood-
lee to read an exchange
between him and rory
mcilroy about the latter’s
par on 18 the day before.
mcilroy: “i putted it off the
green, nearly into the water
hazard. to be honest it was
a solid 5 in the end! no pic-
tures on the scorecard.”
back on the screen, clos-
ing in on what looked to be
his third victory of 2010,
ianjamespoulter lost a
playoff to robert karlsson
when he incurred a penalty
by dropping his ball on his
marker on the 18th green.
everybody was stunned,
except westwood, who
tweeted, “i think it could
be a long night! 1st corona
went down quick! think all
the euro tour tweeters have
the same idea!”
ianJamespoulter has more
than one million followers,
not including unofficial fol-
lowers like me. westwood-
lee debuted last week and al-
ready has 33,000 followers.
both players are certifiably
addicted to twitter. as poul-
ter tweeted, “[westwood] is
like a kid in a sweetie shop,
i wasn’t sure if he was talk-
ing about westwood, who
passed tiger woods for
the no. 1 spot on the world
ranking oct. 31, or the euro-
pean tour in general, which
already had three major
championship winners and
three world golf champi-
onship winners in 2010.
on my screen, martin
kaymer was smiling and
so this is how to cover golf
in the new age. it was 7:30
in the morning, i was buzz-
ing on my second cup of
coffee and had a flashback
to the days before cell
phones and computers,
when reporters would have
to wait for a player to hit
four buckets of balls after
his round, hoping he’d give
you a couple of minutes on
contents // 10 things // european tour //equipment // tim rosaforte
