This season, the PGA TOUR launched the #LiveUnderPar campaign with a promise to extend the game beyond ropes, bringing fans closer to the players and action than ever before.
The program was embraced not only by the TOUR, but by the players as well. The game’s top athletes have taken to social to give fans an inside look at their experiences on and off the course. In the past year, the top 50 players in the FedExCup standings shared almost nine thousand posts to their personal Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram channels, producing just under 80 million video views and over 33 million engagements.
Throughout the season, social flexed its power with golf fans. Feeds were on the brink of exploding each time Tiger was in contention, a little one-on-one match was announced, and Phil nailed his intro to Twitter.
I got this @Twitter thing down pic.twitter.com/gUx8XjNrez
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 22, 2018
While legends like Tiger and Phil make headlines with each tweet, many of the game’s rising stars have been active in building their own brands. The up-and-comers are effectively engaging and growing their audiences by sharing post-round highlights, pre-tournament tee time graphics, and celebrating big accomplishments.
Time to have a big week here in Atlanta for @playofffinale! #FedExCup pic.twitter.com/205z4VxnLG
— Tony Finau Golf (@tonyfinaugolf) September 18, 2018
The TOUR’s athlete-driven MVPs
Below, we break down the social data for the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup standings. We analyze their performance by audience, activity, engagement, and growth on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram from August 30, 2017, to August 30, 2018.
These are the PGA TOUR’s strongest brands on social.
Audience
- Tiger Woods — 10.6 milion followers
- Rory McIlroy — 6 million followers
- Jordan Spieth — 4 million followers
- Bubba Watson — 3.1 million followers
- Ian Poulter — 2.7 million followers
- Tiger Woods — 6.3 million followers
- Rory McIlroy — 3.2 million followers
- Ian Poulter — 2.3 million followers
- Tiger Woods — 3 million followers
- Rory McIlroy — 1.2 million followers
- Jordan Spieth — 460 thousand followers
- Rory McIlroy — 1.6 million followers
- Jordan Spieth — 1.5 million followers
- Tiger Woods — 1.3 million followers
Activity
- Ian Poulter — 948 posts
- Justin Rose — 929 posts
- Bubba Watson — 617 posts
- Justin Thomas — 526 posts
- Billy Horschel — 439 posts
- Justin Rose — 549 posts
- Ian Poulter — 458 posts
- Justin Thomas — 411 posts
- Bubba Watson — 182 posts
- Rory McIlroy — 171 posts
- Pat Perez — 135 posts
- Ian Poulter — 430 posts
- Justin Rose — 380 posts
- Bubba Watson — 182 posts
Engagement
- Rory McIlroy — 6 million engagements
- Tiger Woods — 5.99 million engagements
- Justin Thomas — 5.1 million engagements
- Justin Rose — 3.5 million engagements
- Ian Poulter — 2.4 million engagements
- Tiger Woods — 1.7 million engagements
- Justin Thomas — 764 thousand engagements
- Rory McIlroy — 400 thousand engagements
- Rory McIlroy — 1.4 million engagements
- Tiger Woods — 819 thousand engagements
- Jordan Spieth — 212 thousand engagements
- Justin Thomas — 4.3 million engagements
- Rory McIlroy — 4.2 million engagements
- Tiger Woods — 3.5 million engagements
Engagement rate *min 52 posts, 100 thousand followers
- Patrick Reed — 4.22%
- Jon Rahm — 3.3%
- Adam Scott — 3.19%
- Tony Finau — 2.8%
- Bryson DeChambeau — 3%
Twitter *min 17 posts, 33 thousand followers
- Patrick Reed — 1.63%
- Tony Finau — 1.29%
- Bryson DeChambeau — 1.15%
Facebook *min 17 posts, 33 thousand followers
- Brooks Koepka —1.85%
- Ricky Fowler — 0.93%
- Jason Day — 0.85%
Instagram *min 17 posts, 33 thousand followers
- Justin Thomas — 7.43%
- Jon Rahm — 7.24%
- Adam Scott — 6.89%
Growth
- Tiger Woods — 464 thousand followers
- Jordan Spieth — 333 thousand followers
- Justin Thomas — 323 thousand followers
- Dustin Johnson — 269 thousand followers
- Rory McIlroy — 218 thousand followers
- Phil Mickelson — 200 thousand followers
- Jordan Spieth — 132 thousand followers
- Dustin Johnson — 107 thousand followers
- Rory McIlroy — 21 thousand fans
- Ricky Fowler — 18 thousand fans
- Jordan Spieth — 13 thousand fans
- Tiger Woods — 440 thousand followers
- Justin Thomas — 255 thousand followers
- Rory McIlroy — 201 thousand followers
Growth rate
- Tommy Fleetwood — 452.9%
- Xander Schauffele — 322.1%
- Aaron Wise — 300.7%
- Patrick Cantlay — 216.6%
- Andrew Landry — 201.1%
- Xander Schauffele — 186.6%
- Andrew Landry — 175.8%
- Aaron Wise — 143.7%
- Austin Cook —232.7%
- Bryson DeChambeau — 115.1%
- Brooks Koepka — 69.2%
- Adam Scott — 2629.7%
- Tommy Fleetwood — 984.5%
- Austin Cook — 850.2%