The guy who heckled Ian Poulter on the course and on Twitter got sacked as a result

ian-poulter-wave

Last week, we brought you the news that both Jordan Spieth and Ian Poulter were having a bit of a hard time on social media. Spieth wasn’t happy that a tweet from the PGA Tour’s official account made it sound like he might feign injury to withdraw from the Valspar Championship, and his mood wasn’t improved when someone on Instagram said most of his game was “average” and that, putting aside, the world number one is “garbage”. 

Spieth quickly put the incident behind him, reminding himself that it’s better not to engage with people who are just looking for a reaction and some attention. 

Poulter, meanwhile, had every reason to be upset. Trolls dishing out abuse from behind a keyboard is one thing, but when a so-called ‘fan’ starts shouting across the fairway in a deliberate attempt to put you off your game, it’s just not cricket. When that person then takes to Twitter to brag about their behaviour, Poulter decided enough was enough. 

Poulter took a screenshot of JJ Downum’s tweet and posted it to his own 2.18 million followers, tagging Downum’s employers and suggesting they probably wouldn’t be very impressed with his level of professionalism. 

And he was right. 

“He’s no longer employed at the institution,” Pete Meyer, Florida Southern’s director of athletics and dean of wellness told college sports website The Ledger.

Downum’s Twitter account, perhaps unsurprisingly, has since been deleted. 

The story raised a couple of big questions:

1. Do paying spectators have the right to shout whatever they want on the golf course?

2. Clearly Downum’s behaviour was not what we want to see, but do you think it deserved to cost him his job?

3. Do tour pros have the right to fight back when being attacked on social media, or should they suffer in silence as part of the price of fame?

Let us know what you think…