Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter go ballistic in post-PGA Championship Twitter tirades

Lee Westwood took out his PGA Championship frustrations on his Twitter followers and later apologized, while fellow Brit Ian Poulter suggested doing bodily harm to odious golf fans who scream for players to get their balls in the hole, mash their potatoes and tune into Keegan Bradley’s favorite radio shockmeister, Howard Stern.

Westwood tweeted his mea culpa on Monday after an evening of heated virtual dialogues with critics who bashed him for again falling short of winning his first major. The 40-year-old Englishman who lost the lead at the British Open and finished 13 shots behind PGA champion Jason Dufner on Sunday said he was sorry for verbally abusing “minions” and “girly boy trolls” who tweeted about his 6-over 76 in the final round at Oak Hill.

While the 14th-ranked player in the world with 11 top-10 finishes in his last 23 majors deleted some of his more offensive tweets (“Just sick of negative a******* sat behind a keyboard with a pitiful mate,” “Like I give a f*** what the haters say,” and “Come on you girly boy trolls! I’ve won over 2 mill on course this year!” according to The Guardian), many remain on his Twitter page.

At least one scribe was appalled by Westwood’s tirade -- though not, perhaps, for obvious reasons.

Westwood, who threatened to quit Twitter two years ago due to foul messages directed at him, turned the tables on his attackers this time with some nasty words, which he claimed as his own.

Poulter, meanwhile, initiated a social media campaign to silence the vocal few, like this nitwit.

Sadly for the rest of us, dolts shouting all manner of moronic mantras, from the traditional “Get in the hole!” to the 21st-century versions of such idiocies that range from “mashed potatoes” to “Baba booey,” are growing in numbers, with some unashamed to admit to their cretinism. Those are the folks who drive Poulter ‘round the twist.

Poulter received a tweeted correction from Stern about the spelling of the nickname of his producer Gary Dell’Abate.

He then launched an online crusade to get the PGA Tour to take action against imbeciles on the other side of the ropes.

Poulter, who recorded at T61 at Oak Hill, was still at it Tuesday morning.

Westwood, in the meantime, has maintained Twitter silence since tweeting his apology.

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