Carly Booth in Twitter poll for LPGA spot

Carly Booth is hoping her fans can help the Comrie woman become the first player to secure a spot in an event on the LPGA through a social media poll.

Carly Booth is in with a chance of securing a spot in the LPGA Shoprite Classic in June. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Booth has been nominated along with American Blair O’Neal, Indian Sharmila Nicollet and Bolivian-born Susana Benavides in the unique Twitter poll.

The winner will get a sponsor’s spot in the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, a $1.5 million event taking place in New Jersey in June.

The poll, which was launched last night and will be conducted for the next week, has already attracted close to 9,000 votes.

Booth, a two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, has more than 62,000 followers on Instagram while over 35,000 people follow her on Twitter.

But she faces stiff competition for that coveted spot as her three rivals are the other players popular in social media circles not already qualified for the event.

O’Neal, a Golf Channel host who won the network’s reality show competition “Big Break”, has 186,000 Instagram followers.

Benavides, meanwhile, has more than 350,000 followers on Twitter, second only among LPGA players to Paula Creamer in that respect.

Tournament officials worked with sports social media tracking firm MVP Index to come up with the idea.

“We’ve always been proud of the exemptions we’ve given in the past,” said Tim Erensen, the event’s executive director.

“In the past, we’ve given exemptions to Brooke Henderson, Lexi Thompson and Paula Creamer at the beginning of their careers.

“We think this idea adds to the excitement of what we do.”

In a post on Twitter after the poll was announced, Booth wrote: “Please vote for me to play in the @LPGA @Shoprite_NG”