Golf`s social media world The best golfers make every drive, chip, and putt look easy, but anyone who has ever picked up a club knows that each shot can go wrong in myriad embarrassing ways. Grant Horvat, a skilled amateur golfer, has found fame online by illustrating the chasm between the experts and the weekend crowd. His videos have been watched more than 250m times on YouTube; in one series, he meets pros and tries to beat them over a few holes. Golf is hugely popular online: on Instagram, more than 40m posts are tagged #golf, and on TikTok, the hashtag has 125bn views. Broadcast-television ratings for the sport have been in long-term decline. Yet on social media, a generation of fans is celebrating the best bits of it and ignoring the stuffy aspects. Golf companies now pay YouTubers and TikTokers, as well as promising young players, to advertise their wares.

(Adapted from `Golf Videos Going Viral? These Days it is Par For The Course, published on September 25, 2025, by The Economist)Student debt of Gen X Gen X in the US is barreling toward retirement with an excruciating studentloan burden. The six million-plus borrowers aged 50 to 61 have the highest average balance of any age group, at $47,857, according to Federal Student Aid data. Now, as parents and grandparents, they are passing along a skepticism toward higher education. The oldest Gen Xers were born in 1965, the same year the Higher Education Act created the modern student-loan system. The baby boomers, older than them, didn`t have the same access, and the millennials, younger than them, had greater awareness of the long shadow debt can cast. But for a brief window when the `forgotten generation` was reaching college age, student loans conveyed all of the promise of American upward mobility with none of the pitfalls.

Decades later, the promise is an albatross for many. The unpaid federal student-loan balance has swelled to $1.66 trillion, from $516 billion nearly two decades ago.

(Adapted from `Student-Loan Debt is Strangling Gen X,` by Oyin Adedoyin, published on September 30, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)Cracking China`s market China`s economic slowdown isn`t discouraging US and European brands from revamping their strategies to reach Chinese shoppers. Instead, the allure of the world`s second-largest consumer market is forcing companies to adapt in the face of growing competition from local brands. In the case of Kraft Heinz, getting more people in China to buy ketchup this year also meant hiring a local agency to help create catchy campaigns decorating subway station columns to mimic ketchup bottles and promoting the condiment as a fresh twist on a popular dish: stir-fried eggs and tomatoes. From Starbucks` struggles to Lululemon`s successes in China, it`s become clear that the right mix of localisation is essential. `Among international brands in China, the winners are often dedicating more than 40pc of revenue to marketing,` said Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies.

(Adapted from `From Data To Culture: How International Brands Are Trying To Crack The Code On The Fickle Chinese Consumer,` by Evelyn Cheng, published on October 3, 2025, by CNBC) Viral sorority rushes Sorority recruitment, also known as rush, has become a social-media Super Bowl with massive moneymaking potential for college girls. Like college athletes earning brand endorsements, sororities are now the target of companies looking to advertise products on social media.

Those who go viral stand to gain a debtfree education, expenses-paid trips, and a career path after graduation.Take Blythe Beardsley`s example. She, with her fellow Kappa Kappa Gammas, was looking to reach sorority hopefuls when they posted a choreographed dance. The clip ended up with over 38m views on TikTok.

Suddenly, Beardsley wasn`t just the queen bee of recruitment; she had a chance to be an influencer. Within a few weeks, she had a public TikTok and Instagram, and she and her mom were on a flight to New York Fashion Week, paid for by the Australian fashion brand Showpo.

(Adapted from `Sorority Girls Are Cashing in Big For Their Viral Rush Videos,` by Sarah Spellings, published on September 22, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)