I’m told I have an old soul.

I’m in a bowling league. I like a nice aged scotch. I’ve recently taken up orchid care. I tell too many stories.

I play golf.

It’s gotten to the point where my friends call me “grandpa.” Sure, I’m closer to 30 than not. But I have a hunch a few of you will take exception to me using the O-word to describe myself, so I’ll just do so behind closed doors.

Yet despite all these “older” hobbies, I’m far from a traditionalist. Subversion and progression are mantras of mine. My first instinct is always to look towards a new way of doing things. It’s how I found myself making a living mostly on the internet and operating under a state of mind that the media describes with a particular M word. A word I’m not a particularly big fan of, by the way. But it will have to do for now: Millennial.

I’m not alone living with this dichotomy. Especially not in the Millennial (ugh) generation. People my age and younger have grown up under a standard of exponential growth. So we seem to have made it a mission ours to grab hold of longstanding institutions to inject our standards of acceleration.

And now, we have our hands on golf.

Tiger left a void in the professional golf scene when he disappeared from the leaderboards. Almost immediately, that void was filled by players who grew up under his influence. Millenials who watched an aggressive bomber in a Dri Fit mockneck take over golf courses with power and cold-eyed competitiveness. Tiger defined what golf can be for us, and we loved it; evolving golf to what we see today from the likes of Jason, Rory, and Rickie.

Yet there’s a notable difference between Tiger’s reign and the current youth uprising. The difference is that Jason grew up with AIM and email. Rory and Rickie used the internet in school, not the library. Heck, Jordan was still in middle school when the first iPhone came out, and just four when the Nokia 5110 was popular. He’s probably been texting since he’s had a social life.

Just look at the ages of the top five male golfers in the world right now and you’ll see it’s almost exclusively 20 somethings. The one guy who isn’t, “old” Bubba Watson at 37 years old, is an avid social media user. Something is always popping up in my newsfeed from him, so I’ll grant him an honorable millennial tag.

The women’s top 5 is even younger, with 18 year old Lydia Ko leading the pack. Only Stacy Lewis is older than 30, but not by much (31).

So what his this influx of Facebook and Instagram users to the upper echelons on golf meant to the game? It means that now, more than ever, the game is about more than the track. Professionals, courses, and the powers that be must be ever vigilant of their image to the world wide exposure. Impressions can be made even before a single ball is struck.

A heavy responsibility, yes. But also a great opportunity. Golf’s popularity has been waning over the past decade. We in the golf industry, and all golfers in general, must make a push to bring the game back into the conversation. While the technology to save the game from irrelevancy has been around, we now have the players to use it.

The LPGA in particular is doing a good job of this, gearing their image to appeal to the younger generations with “Winner Selfies” and pushing their players to freely express themselves outside of the ropes. The PGA is doing this to a degree as well, celebrating when Rickie wears his bright orange or Bubba to make his Vines.

It’s a step in the right direction, in my opinion. It’s what needs to be done. Though some of the traditions may be subverted in the process, it’s better than watching traditions become antiquity. Golf has become a younger person’s game once again. Let’s make sure, at least a part of it, stays that way.