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<\/a>Rory McIlroy got into a Twitter spat on Thursday. Photo copyright Icon SMI. <\/p><\/div>It was a strange day in the golf world on Thursday. First, Rory McIlroy got unto a Twitter spat. Then Tiger Woods announced he\u2019s coming back to play next week. Far less newsworthy, but still catching my attention, there was one of the oddest Rules situations I\u2019ve ever heard of at the U.S. Senior Open, involving a ball floating on water. <\/p>\n
First, the big-ticket items: <\/p>\n
I assume you\u2019re already familiar with the details of the McIlroy-Jay Townsend flap. Briefly, Townsend, an American who used to play on the European Tour and is now a BBC and Golf Channel commenter, followed up on some on-air criticisms of McIlroy\u2019s course management in the first round with a couple of tweets. One called McIlroy\u2019s course management \u201cSHOCKING\u201d and another called it \u201csome of the worst course management I\u2019ve seen beyond under 10\u2019s boys competition.\u201d He also suggested that McIlroy replace his caddie, JP Fitzgerald, with Stevie Williams. <\/p>\n
McIlroy responded by tweeting, \u201cShut up\u2026You\u2019re a commentator and a failed golfer. Your opinion means nothing!\u201d <\/p>\n
Both parties were out of line here. I pin more of the blame on Townsend, because he\u2019s the one that started it and because his Twitter comments were over the top and unprofessional. Townsend is entitled to his opinion, but by comparing McIlroy\u2019s course management to a 10-year-old he comes across as someone trying to make a name for himself by creating controversy.<\/p>\n
McIlroy\u2019s response brought the conversation further downward with the impolite, \u201cShut up,\u201d and it also makes no sense to say of someone who is paid to offer his opinions that \u201cyour opinion means nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n
This incident reinforces my surprise at McIlroy being described in practically saintly terms when he won the U.S. Open. Actually, he\u2019s a kid who often seems to get into hot water, from calling the Ryder Cup an \u201cexhibition,\u201d to impetuously joining the PGA Tour in 2010 and impetuously leaving it at the end of the year, to skipping the Players Championship because he doesn\u2019t like the course, to saying after the British Open that he didn\u2019t like playing in bad weather and wouldn\u2019t adjust his game for it. None of this argues against him being fundamentally a good kid\u2014and perhaps \u201ckid\u201d is the appropriate word here. <\/p>\n
If McIlroy sometimes says too much, Woods says too little. In another of his Twitter\/website announcements that seem to come from an alternate universe, Woods said he\u2019s \u201cfeeling fit\u201d and would be playing in the Bridgestone next week. <\/p>\n
Once again, he supplied no significant information, said nothing about having hit any balls yet (leaving us with the impression that he hasn\u2019t), told nothing about what doctors have said about injuries that were supposedly minor in April but have sidelined him for more than three months. Not that we really expected him to. <\/p>\n