Lee Westwood in Twitter tirade at critics

London: Lee Westwood is likely to face an automatic fine of around £5,000 (Dh28,430) from the PGA Tour despite apologising for an extraordinary three-hour Twitter diatribe yesterday, in which he rounded upon critics of his performances in major championships by saying he was “tired of sitting there taking it”.

In the ensuing 50-tweet attack, Westwood described his detractors as “minions” and told one to “get a life”, while even taking a swipe at the views of former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie.

The majority of messages were sent at around 4am US east coast time, hours after he had failed to capitalise on a promising position in the final round of the US PGA, and he appeared later to recognise his misjudgement with an apology on the same forum that read: “Sincere apologies to my sponsors and true followers for my earlier comments. It was out of order and out of character.”

Westwood’s backers, who include Footjoy, Ping, Titleist and UPS, are likely to have taken a stern view of his provocative behaviour — as has the PGA Tour, which typically imposes nominal fines upon players for such outbursts without publicising the amount. If the tirade was indeed uncharacteristic, it was also a reflection of his sensitivity about barbs towards his record in majors, after near-misses this summer at both the Open and US PGA to leave him still without the prize he covets most. The

40-year-old began his fusillade in the wake of Sunday’s final round at Oak Hill, where he started the afternoon six shots off the lead before eventually limping home 13 strokes adrift of eventual champion Jason Dufner. He opened up innocuously enough, by asking his 580,000 followers to follow the account of Ian Baker-Finch — the CBS Sports analyst and Westwood’s neighbour in West Palm Beach, Florida, whom he has recently enlisted to help improve his putting — before turning unusually profane and accusatory.

Among his choice taunts, he suggested that he was “Just sick” of someone “sitting behind a keyboard with a pitiful life” and that he could hardly care for “what the haters say — some people will always be just a little bit better and work just a little but harder.” He sought to clarify that the comments were not aimed at “decent human beings” but those “that should be locked up by the Twitter police.”

Westwood was asked at one stage to “learn how to putt”, to which he replied: “Will you get a life first.”

While Westwood spent five weeks in 2010 and 2011 as the world No 1, he entered the US PGA ranked 12th and recent unravellings, not least his Sunday 76 in Rochester and his closing 75 at Muirfield to lose the 54-hole lead at the Open, have plainly hurt him. He was especially dismissive when made aware of critical remarks from former European No 1 Montgomerie, asking “Who?”

Further messages seemed designed to goad his adversaries and to highlight how much money he had won this season. “Come on you girly boy trolls! I’ve only just won over 2 mill on course this year — need you to keep me entertained a bit longer than this.”

Then, minutes later: “Ah just when I’m in the mood the haters all go quiet! Obviously they didn’t like a bit back at ‘em! I love slagging people back. Had enough of sitting there taking it. Bring it on!”

The strange bombardment, in which Westwood also became involved in exchanges with Joey Barton, subsided only after he had retweeted a remark from a user who pointed out how much he earned relative to those denigrating him. Confirming the outburst had been authentic, he said: “Not been hacked. Just honest. Bored now. Westy out.”

It was all a deeply undignified riposte from a player who has largely tried to rise above such playground brickbats. Westwood has been at pains to stress in his past few trying weeks that he has other priorities in life besides the major title that continues to elude him, but this episode inflicted harm upon his reputation as he reduced himself to playing the online trolls at their own self-absorbed game.