Social media is apart of everything we do these days. It is how we consume information, how we hear about breaking news, and how we interact with friends and family. However, this staple in all of our lives has only been truly significant for the past decade.

I look at the PGA Tour today and see guys like Luke Donald, Justin Rose, and Lee Westwood taking selfies for Instagram and Twitter, but they grew up with cell phones bigger than bricks. So it got me thinking, how would social media have affected the greatest golf moments of all time?

“THE MATCH”

This is a no-brainer example. What started off as a private bet, turned into the most epic golf match of all time. Eddie Lowery, whom you may remember as Francis Oimet’s 10 year-old-caddie in the 1913 Open, made a bet that the 2 best amateurs in America (Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward) could beat 2 legendary pros (Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson)

The match was played at the great Cypress Point, but no one knew about it beforehand. Regardless, news had spread throughout the Monterey Peninsula as thousands of eager spectators began to filter in.

Social Impact

Imagine if there was Twitter or Facebook!?!?!?

I can see it now – @EddieLowery tweeting out “Just made a bet that @KenVenturi and @HarvieWard could take down @BenHogan and @ByronNelson! #CypressPoint”

That would have gotten retweeted 20 thousand times! Then Snead and Player would have chimed in with Tweets of their own. The ripple affect would have been crazy.

#TheMatch would have begun to trend globally, and golf publications would have started aggregating spectator posts to summarize the events for their readerships.

Social Media followers would have dissected the shot-by-shot breakdown on Twitter, and eager fans would have been refreshing their newsfeeds constantly to gain additional insight. Heck, the 4 golfers would have probably gained hundreds of thousands of new followers, which they would have been advised by their agents to monetize with endorsements going forward…seriously.

Jack Frost’s book, The Match, would most likely have never been written because the day’s events would have already been so well-known. But social media wasn’t around, so Jack Frost’s book was created, and it was a masterpiece!

Jean Van De Velde – The Open Collapse

All Jean needed was a DOUBLE BOGEY to win the 1999 Open Championship. He could have gone 7 iron – 7 iron – PW – 3 putt, and still would have won. After hitting his Driver safely in the rough, which was a risky play to begin with, he could have just hit a wedge back into the fairway and played the hole safe from there. Instead he went on to hit a series of inexcusable shots in route to an historic collapse.

Social Impact

It would have been a social media field day. The Twitter World blowing up with hysteria and ill-pointed jabs. Instagram pics being posted of Van De Velde with his shoes off in the water and #Collapse #DoLess #NotSmart #EpicFail being attached to each post.

The only thing social media gets riled up for more than a success story, is an epic collapse.

Lucky for Van De Velde, Mark Zuckerberg was only 15 years old.

Jack Nicklaus 1986 Masters

Social Media still loves this day 30 years later. Every year during The Masters you see pictures of Jack on 15 and 17. Jack reading an 18-foot putt on 17 with his son right behind him will forever be engrained in our minds. When announcer Ben Wright said “YES SIR,” every golf fan in the world stood up and yelled as Jack raised his putter in the air to salute the Golf Gods.

Social Impact

Social Media thrives on developing stories, which is exactly why Jack’s charge on the back9 at Augusta would have spread like crazy.

GIFs and Memes would have flooded Facebook and Twitter, Instagram would have had a field day, and every golf fan alive would have paid homage to Jack Nicklaus on their social accounts.

Other Moments

I would love to hear your thoughts on other moments in golf history that would be been social media field days. These moments are passed on from generation to generation regardless, but your average golf fan wasn’t able to partake in the drama quite like they could if those moments were to have happened today.