Editor’s note: I Follow is all about ESPN employees on Twitter: what they tweet, whom they follow and how you can interact socially with anyone and everyone.
Today, we focus on ESPN.com senior golf writer Bob Harig, who this week is in England to cover The Open Championship. He has been a golf writer for more than 25 years.
Twitter handle: @BobHarig
ESPN Job: Golf writer
Followers: 8,436 (as of 7/17/12)
Following: 107
When did you join Twitter and why?
On April 1, 2011, as a sort of April Fool’s joke. Those who know me are aware that I resisted the urge to be part of Twitter for a good while. I was late to the party.
You answer a lot of fan questions on Twitter. Do you enjoy that interaction?
I do. It’s amazing how many people are out there following this stuff, and especially at the big tournaments, the questions will come flying in. When time permits, I try to answer them. Many times I learn things that way myself by looking up answers to questions.
Who is your favorite person to follow on Twitter?
Well, it was Bill Murray until after a while I came to realize it wasn’t really Bill Murray. But whoever it was pulled off the character quite well. I was amused.
What’s the biggest impact that Twitter has had on your life?
As if I didn’t procrastinate enough already, now I have another excuse.
What’s been your strangest exchange on Twitter?
It wasn’t strange, just made me chuckle when I was in Abu Dhabi for a tournament earlier this year. We were 9 hours ahead of the East Coast, the tournament started early in the morning, which meant it was late at night in the U.S. Tiger [Woods] was getting started in his first tournament in the year and I was tweeting updates through his round with a lot of feedback from U.S. golf fans who were watching the tournament in the wee hours. I was stunned by the amount of interest, the number of people who were staying up well into the night to follow. It’s another example of the popularity of Twitter.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: With ESPN moving up the airtime for its live coverage of The Open Championship to 4:30 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday so that viewers can see the full rounds of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, SportsCenter will lead into the coverage on both days with a half-hour live edition at 4 a.m. with previews from Royal Lytham & St Annes to help get viewers ready for the live golf play. In addition, SportsCenter will have live updates on the hour at 6, 7 and 8 a.m.
