Influence can be measured two ways...and therefore the same goes for influencers...breadth and width. WIDTH would mean the number of others influenced by the influencer...and DEPTH of course would mean the amount of influence the influencer has on other individuals. On top of that...one needs to define the audience...is it:
A...all 8 billion folks in the world
B...the "x" number of golfers in the world (which would require defining the term "golfer")
C...the "y" number of golfers who play at least "y" number of rounds of golf per year
or some other audience... (posters to GCA? or Golf Course architects, or Golf course raters, ...)?
Frankly, unless the audience is something like "posters to GCA" (or similar very narrow definitions) I think that of the people mentioned in Jeff's original post...only Keiser belongs in a top 10. And who should join Keiser in the Top 10 for all golfers to a larger audience?...IMO for sure Dick Youngscap (no Sandhills then doubtful Keiser tries Bandon...no Bandon and the concept that people will travel ridiculous distances to play golf doesn't happen...)...think this applies to any golf related audience, Tiger Woods...most famous athlete on the planet (prior to Argentina's win), JWN, Greg Norman (for last 12-18 months)...but sorry to say it, but Golf Course Architects and Top 100 Panelists and other golf course nuts would not be considered "influencers" except with Audiences of their peers.
In any case...IU think the question in whatever magazine was not properly defined...resulting in most of the posts above