Rickie Fowler Has 70-Year-Olds Following Him On Snapchat

My Snapchat struggles are well-documented, but Rickie Fowler is slowly turning me over to the #millennial side of things. Fowler discussed Snapchat and how he uses it to build his brand recently at the U.S. Open.

“I think it’s a great way to involve the fans a bit more,” said Fowler. “From the feedback that I’ve gotten, they enjoy it. It’s a side that they don’t get to see. I’ve seen some comments as far as they feel like they’re there walking around, part of the group type of thing. You don’t have to deal with any negative feedback or anything on there. Post it, people get to watch the story, enjoy it, and just keep feeding them good content. So far it’s been good.”

The biggest advantage of Snapchat (to me anyway) is there is no commenting. There is no enticement for the content creator to look at absurd online comments, and there is no outlet for insane people to dispose their thoughts. That’s a great thing if you’re a pro athlete.

Quick aside: I’m not sure I would ever be on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook if I was a pro athlete. I don’t know how they do it. It’s a vile, vile place.

“Social media is definitely a lot more of the younger generation, but I feel like there’s been a lot of people, some of my older fans from all generations,” continued Fowler. “I feel like I’ve heard people say, I listened to your Snapchat story. I mean, 50-, 60-, 70-year-olds. So I think there’s a wide range of people that are at least seeing what’s going on out there a lot with me and Justin [Thomas] and Smylie [Kaufman] on there.

“So we have fun with it. It’s fun on the golf course. It kind of it easy going out there. It’s relaxing, just to kind of make it feel a little more like just a round at home.”

Seventy-year-olds following Big Rick on Snapchat? What a world we live in. Of course when you’re pumping out goodies like this one, it’s easy to see why he has so many followers.

Because it's #NationalSelfieDay (via @RickieFowler on snapchat). pic.twitter.com/MoAig5ieAc

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) June 22, 2016

“I feel like everyone that plays professionally on the PGA Tour, I think it’s all part of our job to help grow the game, to all be great role models,” added Rickie. “I feel like social media has definitely given us a little bit of that opportunity to reach more of the younger generation and give them a glimpse of what’s going on, whether it’s day to day, inside the ropes, stuff they don’t get to normally see and show that we’re having a good time.

“We enjoy getting to play with buddies. We have a lot of good friendships out here. A lot of the top players are good buddies, and I think people enjoy seeing that.”

It’s pretty easy to see why Fowler is a marketer’s dream, and to this point in his career his play on the course has backed up his persona off it. He’s right about the buddy system too. Much to my chagrin, most of those guys are pals. And then there’s Rory McIlroy.

In a lot of ways, Fowler is the perfect golfer for this generation from a branding perspective. His real persona — not the one fluffed up by Red Bull and Puma — is incredibly laid back, maybe even boring. He’s not bro-ing out of his mind every weekend. He rarely says anything substantially exciting. In a lot of ways he’s a blank canvas for marketers to paint you a picture. And he gets a lot of money for those pictures.

The flip side of that is that I think he genuinely thinks about how to influence and inspire kids — which is obviously the most important part of his position. Seventy-year-olds too. As long as they’re on Snapchat.