Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - Paige Mackenzie spent part of a rain delay at the Wegmans LPGA napping. Shoes off, arms crossed and a white Nike hat pulled down over her eyes, she buried her head into the back of the brown leather chair and drifted off. On a nearby windowsill sat her phone, a bottle of water and a box of tissues, all visible in the candid photo of her Friday siesta.

Outside the window, fans remained dry under large golf umbrellas, crossing one of the slick pedestrian walkways at Locust Hill Country Club. Several stopped to check out the leaderboard, unaware that one of the leaders was upstairs in the clubhouse, snapping their picture through the rain-specked glass.

Days earlier, on their way to the event in Rochester, N.Y., Natalie Gulbis and Brittany Lincicome huddled together in the back of a private jet for a photo, Gulbis dressed all in red and Lincicome decked out in navy blue.

Behind their heads, in a mirror, the photographer's hands are barely visible.

Welcome, readers, to the Twitter page of 21-year-old Morgan Pressel -- professional golfer, major champion, paparazzo-at-large.

Owing to her popularity as a young star on the LPGA Tour, Pressel has more than 6,000 followers on Twitter, the social networking Web site where users can post messages (Tweets) up to 140 characters long, the micro-blogging equivalent of a cell phone text message.

Pictures can also be posted on Twitter.com, as anyone who saw Janis Krums' famous photo of the downed US Airways plane in the Hudson River already knows.

On Sunday, after shooting a 78 in Rochester to fall from second place into a tie for 15th, Pressel was left bemoaning a final round spent in the pouring rain ("Very frustrating day on the course") and apologizing to one fan for her performance ("ugh I'm sorry u had to watch that!").

Hours earlier, and four shots closer to the lead, Pressel was more upbeat. She answered one follower's question about the hat she wore the day before ("blue and yellow! to go with the navy pony and stripe on my skirt") and let everyone know when she was done procrastinating and finally finished with her packing ("almost at the course").

Fellow player Nicole Hage, on her Twitter page, wished Pressel luck in her final round. Hage was shocked to learn that TV pitchman Billy Mays had died -- this so soon after the passing of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon.

"Really bad week to be a celebrity," Hage wrote.

On her page, Christina Kim admitted that her dad's cooking ("some noxious Korean dish") was what set off a smoke alarm, evacuating the building she was in and summoning the fire department to shut it off.

To which Michelle Wie responded: "haha was it u guys who caused the alarm? Even tho I got 2 mosquito bites on my forehead from being outside. I still love u."

Athletes are increasingly turning to Twitter for a more direct link to the public. Free from the cloying presence of microphones and cameras, they sometimes reserve their most interesting comments for their Twitter feeds.

Stacy Lewis, reacting to the same daylong deluge that frustrated Pressel on Sunday, was quick to make a post after her round: "Question of the day: Why didn't we tee off earlier?"

In another rain-related Tweet, Ian Poulter reacted to the downpour that suspended the first round of the U.S. Open, turning Bethpage Black's fairways and greens into rivers and lakes: "Where's my canoe," the Englishman quipped.

Even the sports media, sometimes slow to react to such trends, have climbed on board the Twitter train.

Legendary golf writer Dan Jenkins, attending his 200th major championship, posted from Bethpage under the handle "the Ancient Twitterer." The 79-year-old scribe mixed generic who-made-a-bogey-where Tweets with anecdotes that would have made Bob Hope chuckle.

"Fan #1 to the bearded Johan Edfors: 'Looks like Jesus.' Fan #2, after Edfors left a putt 10 feet short: 'Looks like Jesus; putts like Mary.'"

The popularity of these modern-day telegrams has not gone unnoticed by the major sports leagues in this country. As of Sunday, Major League Baseball, the NBA and NFL all had active Twitter feeds, as did the PGA and LPGA Tours. The USGA had someone Tweeting updates during the U.S. Open.

Recently, the LPGA Tour faced backlash when it was reported (erroneously, commissioner Carolyn Bivens said) that it was open to the idea of players posting to their Twitter accounts during rounds.

While the current consensus seems to be that Tweeting from the course is a monumentally bad idea, it may just be that the concept is too new, too weird for us to imagine.

It may only be a matter of time before the idea becomes a fait accompli.

In the meantime, for those fans whose access is somewhere this side of John Feinstein's, Twitter stands as a rope-cutting, seat-jumping, television screen-breaking, grammar-challenged, unfiltered pass to what the athletes they follow are really thinking.

and whats so wrong w/ that??