Forget all those tips from social-media types about how to grow your Twitter fandom. All you need to do to pick up thousands of new followers is blow a three-shot lead with a triple-bogey on the final hole of a PGA Tour event and tweeps by the score will find you.
So Kyle Stanley discovered Sunday night after he made a hash of the par-5 18th at Torrey Pines and found himself in a sudden-death playoff, which he lost to Brandt Snedeker on the second hole of overtime. Indeed, Stanley, who’s still seeking his first tour win and is just a rookie on Twitter, was blown away by the outpouring of support from his growing band of followers after his tearful exit from the Farmers Insurance Open.
“You know, I’m kind of new to Twitter,” Stanley told reporters Tuesday, prior to this week’s Phoenix Open. “I just started, I don’t know, maybe a month or two ago [but] I think I picked up probably 6,000 followers or something in the past 48 hours and almost every single one of them has sent a message....I’m surprised by it. I’m overwhelmed by it, by the support I’ve gotten, and it’s certainly been nice to feel like I had people behind me.”
The former Clemson golfer’s @kylestanleygolf Twitter page boasts more than 5,400 followers, although some of Stanley’s backers chose more traditional ways to communicate their encouragement. Fellow tour pros Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker phoned and texted, respectively. Even Gonzaga University’s basketball coach Mark Few -- whom Stanley has never met but whose team he’s followed “since I was three feet tall” -- sent a text message urging the avid hoops fan to “keep my head up and that I played tough, and that down the road I’m going to be stronger for it.”
Stanley was truly thankful for all the kind words. “Zach, Strick, just a lot of players have had a lot of nice things to say. It's been good. It's been good,” he said. “The support has been great, and I'm certainly very grateful for that.”
Stanley refused to second-guess himself after playing “some really good golf” last week. He did, however, concede that if there were one shot he’d take a Mulligan on, it would be that 80-yard third sand wedge to 18 that spun back off the green and into the water fronting the putting surface. Perhaps he’d hit a 52-degree wedge instead of a 56.
“Just maybe do whatever I could to take that water out of play,” he said. “You know, I think obviously when you go through something like that and you look back on it, there are going to be some things you could obviously do a little bit differently.
“But in the moment I felt like Brett [Waldman, his caddie] and I made a pretty good decision, you know,” Stanley said, “and that doesn't change.”
As for the emotions Stanley expressed after his loss, the golfer said that’s just who he is.
“You know, that's me. I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve a little bit,” he said. “It just kind of came out. It was very tough to swallow. But that's one of the things I learned is I think you need to really be prepared for whatever this game can throw at you.”
Stanley also said he would not let last week’s mishap affect the remaining 27 or 28 events he’ll play this year.
“The process doesn't change, the mindset doesn't change,” he said. “I'm playing great golf right now. I have a great team of people around me....We're just going to continue to work hard and keep trying to put ourselves in position with golf tournaments.”
Comments