The worlds of professional golf and social media are coming together in a classroom at Wichita State University.

The class is Communication in Sport, and the partnership to bring the latest in communication media to a golf tournament is the first of its kind at WSU.

“This is where communication is going,” said Roy Turner, the director of the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open.

The Professional Golf Association Tour is new to social media, which is membership-based Internet applications where content is created by the user.

Turner asked Clay Stoldt, an associate professor and chair of WSU’s department of sport management, for help in bringing social media to the tournament.

“Our department has had a long-standing relationship with them (the Wichita Open) and we’ve done a variety of things with the tournament over the years,” said Stoldt, “but we’ve never done anything like this.”

The PHS Wichita Open, part of the PGA Nationwide Tour, and WSU are partners in and out of the classroom for the spring 2009 semester.

The class, which has been divided into five groups, will create and implement various forms of social networking sites for the Wichita Open.

Applications such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Digg, Wikipedia and Knol will be used to promote the event and provide an online media resource guide for the tournament.

Some class members will also research nationwide golf tournament activity relating to social networking and report back with recommendations. Other students are responsible for the creation and distribution of an e-newsletter.

The concept of bringing together these modes of communication for the purpose of promoting a sporting event is somewhat unchartered waters, said Stoldt.

“There aren’t many models out there to follow, so there is a great deal of experimentation,” he said. “It’s not like some other marketing or PR events where there are tried and true game plans to follow to achieve results.”

The goals of this endeavor are collaborative and multifaceted.
The first is to leverage the variety of communication platforms that exist.

Second is to reach a younger demographic that typically uses the various forms of social media.

Third is to generate advance buzz and drive people to the Wichita Open Web site for tour information and promotion registration in which prizes will be given away.

Finally, the venture is aimed at engaging the community as a whole and attracting more visitors to the tournament.

Each Web application will be used to drive the audience to the other related sites. The goal is to integrate them to promote the tournament overall.

Laura Biery, a graduate student in the class, is on the team that will create a Wiki and a Knol page, which will serve as an online guide to the 2009 tournament.

“We will include general background information, stats, record lists of previous winners and pictures,” said Biery. “It’s a new way to encourage visitors and engage fans.”

Another purpose is to overcome a misconception about golf tournaments.

“The mental perception is, golf tournament – expensive,” said Stoldt. “The hope is by using these platforms we can share the opportunities that are available to the public.”

Even the students were amazed at how affordable tickets are to attend the tournament, he said.

Although the mode of communication will change for this year’s tournament, the traditional message will not.

“It’s not just a golf tournament, it’s a social experience that is the go-to event of the summer,” he said.

That has been the tournament’s message in the past and will continue to be, just through a new medium.

In addition to the tournament’s and WSU’s interest in this experiment in social media, the PGA Nationwide Tour is also watching the endeavor closely.

“They are pretty curious about this, too, and how this is all going to work out,” said Stoldt. “I think they would like to have a sense of what the potential of this is and how it may pertain to some of the other events that they have down the road.”

Turner also said the PGA Tour is “in constant communication with us on where it’s going.”

At the end of the semester, the students will give an oral presentation of their work to the directors of the tournament and will receive a grade based on their performance.

The social media sites will then be handed over to the Wichita Open for ongoing operation. The tournament hopes to hire one or two summer interns from the class population for assistance in this transition.

This August, the collaborative efforts between WSU and the PHS Wichita Open, also known as the “party with 18 dance floors,” will serve as an example of a classic sport, deep in tradition, taking on a new era of communication.