Tiger Woods has tweeted four times in the month of December. For him, lately, that's a lot.
"I'm hot, aren't I?" he joked Wednesday at the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge. Woods said girlfriend Lindsey Vonn has encouraged him to tweet more often.
"As far as her convincing me to tweet more, yes, she certainly has hinted that," he said. "But I grew up in a different era, and it's a little bit different for me. But I'll get there eventually."
Vonn is 29. Woods is almost 38. Different era? C'mon now. Nevertheless, Woods' comments on Twitter drove us to a sickness: offering a retrospective on Tiger Woods' life on Twitter.
Woods' first tweet was June 26, 2009. There were three in a string, all promotional: one for his website, one for his Facebook page and another tweeting the address to his Twitter page. OK, it didn't go so well.
Welcome to my new Twitter page at: www.twitter.com/TigerWoods
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) June 26, 2009
Tiger came back to Twitter on Nov. 17, 2010, sending 308 tweets since. Over the course of the 1,114 days since he rejoined Twitter, Woods has averaged 0.27 tweets per day. That ain't much.
In fact, almost half of Woods' lifetime tweets (142) came in the first seven months he was back on Twitter. Since then, there have only been three months in which Woods has cracked double-digit tweets -- none since April 2012. Woods' most prolific month was a year earlier, sending 56 tweets in April 2011, including 46 in an April 29 Q&A session.
Including that Q&A, Woods has held a total of five such sessions on Twitter. (Don't forget that awkward Google Hangout on May 29, 2012.) His last was on March 15, 2012, with a pithy nine tweets answering fan questions. A couple of the tweets were likely contractual obligations, with a pair of them dedicated to questions about the soon-to-be defunct EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise.
So Tiger tweets sparsely. That means when he shares something, it draws a lot of attention, right? Then again, you might miss it in your timeline if it happens only once in a blue moon. It's a tweedle in a tweetstack. But Woods, like in his news conferences, has tendencies in what he shares and talk about with his 3.7 million followers.
Most often, he talks about the Tiger Woods Foundation and Tiger Woods Learning Centers. He mentioned or alluded to them in 30 tweets -- almost 10 percent of his lifetime tweets.
Second? Stanford, getting seven name drops. Then there's a big tie for third with three mentions: his niece, Cheyenne Woods, Nelson Mandela, the Oakland Raiders and gambling.
Wherever I win at. RT: @benburnett favourite casino in las vegas?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 29, 2011
My niece, Cheyenne, just won the ACC golf title by 7 shots! That's awesome, I'm so proud of her.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 17, 2011
Nelson Mandela. RT: @EricHerzfeld if you could trade places with anyone in the world who would it be?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 29, 2011
He's talked about his course design work at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, twice -- both times with a picture of him heroically stalking the developing property.
Great to be back @DiamanteCabo, excited to see all the progress being made on El Cardonal pic.twitter.com/eDKkEhEFtk
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 16, 2013
He's mentioned his girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn, once, when they jointly told the world they were dating and shared some photography for all us of media types to use.
Just posted some pictures of @Lindseyvonn and me on Facebook http://t.co/XZwEvmsaXn
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 18, 2013
Woods has shared one selfie, and that was before "selfie" was a word and Instagram was a thing.
Twitter is a vehicle for Woods to talk about his loyal sponsors, mentioning EA Sports in 18 tweets (largely thanks to those two chats), Nike on 11 occasions, upstart Fuse Science 5 times and Rolex just once.
But Woods hasn't been a robot on Twitter. He's revealed some fascinating things about himself on the service.
He loves wearing shorts.
The best part about phone interviews is getting to wear shorts.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) November 18, 2010
He's evasive in even answering questions about his favorite movies.
No movie compares to Caddyshack. RT: @MrCree2 Coming to America or Hangover?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) November 30, 2010
He's self-aware.
At least I was #1 pick back then, fo’ shizzle RT: @lisap0wer What did you think when @davechappelle played you in the Racial Draft?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 25, 2011
He's self-effacing.
First win of the year, unfortunately it was against @jimmyfallon
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 17, 2011
His taste in ice cream is bland.
Vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. RT: @davidddubs44 What is your favorite ice cream?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 29, 2011
He supports technology, but hates anchoring. (Flip-flopper?!)
Natural progression of golf, look at how ball has changed RT @RideTheKtrain should more be done to limit the impact of technology over skill
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012
He can be a little feisty.
Press conference time. Off to visit with my best friends.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 24, 2011
On Twitter? Every 1.7 seconds. RT: @Randyinvegas @TigerWoods How often do you get offers from people to help you with your golf game?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 17, 2012
Woods has shared condolences on Seve's death, to welcoming caddie Joe Lacava to Team Tiger, to chastising and simultaneously downplaying Sergio's "fried chicken" remarks. He tried to explain his bad drop at this April's Masters.
However, he's tweeted less this year than any of the three full years he's been on Twitter, cutting his tweets almost by half every year:
2011: 140
2012: 78
2013: 37
So, Tiger's reached the absolute peak of Twitter indifference. Maybe Lindsey can spark a few more 140-character tidbits out of the world No. 1.
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