Golf: Westwood issues apology over Twitter posts

The 40-year-old carded a disappointing six-over 76, leaving him 13 shots behind winner Jason Dufner and still without a major success to his name.

Dufner claimed his first major title after surviving a nervous finish at Oak Hill.

The American equalled the lowest score in major history with a second-round 63 and carded a closing 68 despite dropping shots at the final two holes, the 36-year-old finishing 10 under par.

Overnight leader Jim Furyk also bogeyed the 17th and 18th to finish two behind, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson claiming outright third on seven under to go with his runners-up finish in the Open Championship at Muirfield.

Westwood did not seem in the mood to take any criticism of his performance and career on the social media site, however, and when asked by one user to “learn how to putt”, he responded from his verified @WestwoodLee Twitter account by saying: “Will you get a life first”.

Further tweets from the account included: “You minions need to live from the inside out rather than the outside in!!!!”, “Just sick of negative a******** sat behind a keyboard with a pitiful life mate !thats all!” and “Like I give a **** what the haters say! That’s life ! Some people will always be just a little bit better and work just a little bit harder.”

Another tweet sought to clarify that the comments were “not (aimed at) my decent human beings followers of course. Just the p***** that should be locked up by the twitter police.”

However, Westwood yesterday afternoon moved to calm the waters following his outburst, somewhat unsurprisingly, by posting a message on Twitter.

He said: “Sincere apologies to my sponsors and true followers for my earlier comments. It was out of order and out of character ,Westy.”

Westwood had also appeared to dismiss criticism by television pundit Colin Montgomerie of his round in his earlier rant, simply replying “Who?” when asked for a response to the former Ryder Cup captain’s remarks.

Further tweets also appeared designed to goad his critics, including: “Ahhh just when I’m in the mood the haters all go quiet! They must have the porn on! Ahhh the haters have all gone quiet now ! Obviously didn’t like a bit back at em!”

The apology was tweeted by the golfer at 4.30pm UK time, six hours after he signed out from his last outburst on the increasingly popular social media network.