Golf's most valuable Twitter accounts: Tiger Woods tops list with Rory McIlroy in second place

Sportspersons today are worshipped by fans, feted by followers and earn more than six-figure sums for their services. Facebook and Twitter reflect their popularity.

Openendorse, in association with golf.com, recently compiled a list of golf's most valuable Twitter accounts based on various factors and protocols to arrive at the financial value of a single tweet and there is a familiar name on top of the board with Tiger Woods in the first place followed by Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter.

A single tweet of the winner of 14 Majors was valued at $33,911(£23,612) while McIlroy's tweet was $16,161 (£11,253) and Poulter's came up to $11,982 (£8343)

Sam Weber, spokeperson for Opendorse, said: "Athletes are like media companies of the future. They have the opportunity to build followings that are large and engaged enough to monetize. To do that, they need to act like media companies by sharing great content to earn more reach, trust and ultimately influence. The golfers on this list are an excellent example of this principle."

Tiger Woods, the most popular name in golf, was expected to rank high in the list but what is surprising is that on field success does not automatically translate into social media followers, with top-ranked Jason Day having only 300,000 Twitter followers while someone like Stewart Cink has more than a million followers despite not having won a major tournament since 2009.

The Golf's top 10 highest value per tweet list:

1) Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods)- $33,911 (£23,612) per tweet

2) Rory McIlroy (@McilroyRory)- $16,161 (£11,253) per tweet

3) Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter)- $11,982 (£8,343) per tweet

4) Bubba Watson (@bubbawatson)- $8,515 (£5,929) per tweet

5) Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth)- $7,437 (£5,178) per tweet

6) Rickie Fowler (@RickieFowler)- $6,279 (£4,372) per tweet

7) Stewart Cink (@stewartcink)- $5,957 (£4,147) per tweet

8) Lee Westwood (@Westwood Lee)- $4,373 (£3,044) per tweet

9) Graeme Mcdowell (@Graeme_McDowell)- $3,931 (£2,737) per tweet

10) Luke Donald (@LukeDonald)- $3,250 (£2,262) per tweet