Ranking the 7 Best PGA Tour Players on Social Media

What distinguishes the PGA Tour's best pros to follow on social media?

It's more than just the number of followers. For example, the bland and corporate Tiger Woods Twitter account has 4.46 million followers but isn't worth paying attention to. Woods' self-serving tweets come in biweekly and are largely commercial efforts. Likewise, Rory McIlroy doesn't deliver the depth or volume of social media morsels you'd hope for. 

To be among the best, you have to post with regularity, engage fans and generally entertain. 

Who satisfies the above criteria best?

Click through to see. 

7. John Peterson

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Twitter: 5,919

Facebook: N/A

Instagram: 2,835

An LSU alumnus and as country as they get on the PGA Tour (except for maybe Boo Weekley), John Peterson is as unfiltered and entertaining as they come on social media. 

Here's an example of the type of off-the-cuff stuff you can expect from Peterson: "Colonial is in great shape. I'm not in great shape. But lots of dudes aren't in great shape. Send."

Plus, he drives this camouflage Ford Bronco (with his dog, Katy, in the back, no less).   

6. Lee Westwood

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Twitter: 759K

Facebook: 94K

Instagram: 42.4K

Lee Westwood comes off as a regular chap with a biting sense of humor on social media, and his interactions with other pros are gold. 

While he's been relentlessly plugging his app lately, it's worth remembering when Westy famously let loose on trolls after blowing up in the final round of the 2013 PGA Championship—one of his greatest hits on social media, to be sure. 

"Come on you girly boy trolls! I've only won just over 2 mill on course this year! Need you to keep me entertained a bit longer than this," Westwood tweeted, via Simon Cass of the Daily Mail.

5. Graeme McDowell

David Cannon/Getty Images

Twitter: 671K

Facebook: 131K

Instagram: 46.7K

Graeme McDowell is a cool customer, and that comes across on his social media channels. His Instagram bio pretty much sums up the man: "Travelling the world playing a game I love. Doesn't get much better."

While he does seem to mention either his beer or his bar (Nona Blue) once in every three tweets, G-Mac is always willing to engage his fans on social media, which makes for a lot of interesting retweets with commentary from the Ulsterman. 

4. Bubba Watson

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

Twitter: 1.38M  

Facebook: 304K

Instagram: 181K

The divisive Bubba Watson has more than 1 million followers on Twitter, and he's one of the game's most popular professionals across all platforms. 

Watson has been using Twitter since September 2009 and has remained active throughout his meteoric rise. He primarily plugs his sponsors, interacts with fans and posts videos of himself being, well, Bubba. Consider the recent #LemonheadShower.    

I don't think you would have caught Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan or even Jack Nicklaus engaging in similar behavior. Whether you think that's a good thing likely tracks with how you feel about the long-hitting left-hander in general. 

3. Ian Poulter

LM Otero/Associated Press

Twitter: 1.9M  

Facebook: 102K 

Instagram: 130K

Probably the most active tweeter on the PGA Tour, Ian Poulter plugs his brand (Ian Poulter Design), roots for Arsenal, shows off his Ferraris, makes grammatical blunders and finds himself embroiled in controversy with regularity.

Poulter is worth following simply because he can't help himself and often stoops to respond to trolls like he did just days ago, responding to suggestions that he'd choked at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, saying, "I'm still chocking up the $220,350.00 give me a second I will pull myself together shortly."

Nice. 

2. Jason Dufner

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Twitter: 448K

Facebook: 67K

Instagram: N/A

Jason Dufner devotes most of his tweets to subtweeting sports in general (his alma mater, Auburn, in particular) and ribbing Keegan Bradley. 

The Duf's Average Joe quality makes him appealing, sure, but you've got to follow him to see his passion for tweeting pictures of totally overloaded vehicles on the highway. Like this. Or this. 

1. Rickie Fowler

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

Twitter: 938K

Facebook: 60K

Instagram: 501K

Rickie Fowler is a social media veteran: He's been on Twitter since April 2009. The selfie aficionado uses social media to showcase his high-octane, off-the-course life. Fowler has toned things down a bit since his coming-out party in 2013, but he's still living the life, as evidenced by this Instagram from the holiday season.

The California native devotes a fair portion of his Instagram to his girlfriend (Alexis Randock), his sponsor (Puma) and his college (Oklahoma State) these days, and he'll occasionally slam a troll, via Marika Washchyshyn of Golf.com.