If you are an athlete, social media is probably not a bastion of encouragement and good will. Jordan Spieth is slowly finding that out as his brand grows on and off the course.

He got into a silly dust-up with a fan earlier this year after that fan called him out on Instagram.

Then at the Bridgestone Invitational last week, Spieth once again jumped on social media to defend himself after making a triple bogey at the par-5 16th hole at Firestone.

"Only when I'm really bored," he said of when he gets on social media. "Certain locations where there's not a whole lot to do. This week is one where you're just in a hotel. I didn't really have anybody come to the tournament. So I just go back and I'm just sitting there, and you can only flip through so many channels before you're just kind of on your phone."

Then he described the "incident."

"I've been working a lot, like I told you guys, working on my mental attitude on the golf course. Playing quicker but also doing less talking to hit it, walk up to the next shot, hit it from there. In my feed, I follow a lot of obviously golf things. I'm a fan of golf. I don't search it out for me. But when a headline reads kind of makes triple bogey and blames the hole, I'm like, 'I don't think that was fair because I talked about that hole last year, the year before, and a video of it Wednesday.' I was not blaming the hole after I made an eight. I had already previously said that, and I just happened to just mis-hit a shot."


This is true, of course. Spieth talked about how the hole was better from closer before the tournament even started. Even so, the headline was technically true. Spieth did make a triple bogey, and he did criticize the hole. It's difficult sometimes for those of us covering the PGA Tour to provide the entire context because, well, sometimes we miss stuff. That doesn't mean either party is necessarily wrong or acting in bad faith.

"I certainly don't ever want to go down as a whiner or complainer or anything because we live the life," added Spieth. "We truly are very, very lucky to do what we do, and I don't take that for granted, and I don't ever want to go down as high maintenance or complaining about any situation. But at the same time, you guys want honesty, and I'll tell you what every single player says is that's a much better hole from 50 yards up.

"So I was just a little frustrated with that being out and kind of maybe giving off as me complaining because I didn't perform on that hole. But all in all, I shouldn't really get involved in social media. It doesn't do anything for me. But again, it's rare."

That last part is probably true. Not just for Spieth but for all golfers and athletes generally. Responding on Twitter rarely leads anywhere beneficial.