Social Mediasphere Easy 4&3 Winner Over PGA Tour Scrubs

Henrik Stenson shanked a shot and the PGA Tour shanked the reaction.

While it's tempting to imagine Bud Fox look alikes paid to scrub history and yelling across cubicles out to each other, "I zapped another one", they ultimately failed miserably in keeping Stenson's shank from being widely seen.

While the tour was temporarily successful in keeping the footage off of YouTube, other outlets stepped in and Vine became the place for Stenson's shank. The shank has since picked up by big audience blogs like The Big Lead and even joked about in a Facebook post by Stenson following his round.

Here's what the tour's video feed included today, instead:

And while "THE PLAYERS An Atmosphere like no other" is no doubt a moving piece only a month ahead of its time, WGC sponsor Cadillac is paying a premium to entertain guests, get big ratings and see social media engagement that recognizes their sponsorship. Most of the above videos are merely taking up space on YouTube servers. Stenson's shank, on the other hand, would have gotten the tournament attention from both traditional and non-traditional outlets online.

The scrubbing was all for naught, as a clip was lifted from Golf Channel's Golf Central coverage and has since been posted with an ad by the Sports Entertainment Network. Which, for all I know, is kosher in Ponte Vedra because of a rights arrangement, but the appearance of trying to cover something up by a player who was so likely to be the first to joke about it, provides yet another reminder that the PGA Tour

(A) doesn't know its players very well

(B) does not have confidence that its fans might see such a shot and only relate to the player in question even more, and...

(C) has a long, long way to go if it thinks it can battle social media and win.