Ian Poulter
It all started off as a bit of fun between a group of golfers - Ian Poulter, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood - providing for the most part good banter and jokes for following fans. Along with some valuable quotes for journalists which more often than not end up as newspaper quotes.
But now the experiences of other sports have crept in as the negative element of Twitter threatens to claim another casualty as world number one, Westwood, is suggesting he will close his account. The change of mind comes after some abusive messages which has left the Worksop professional somewhat baffled.
“It’s a shame people can’t distinguish between abuse and banter,’ said Westwood, who has more than 200,000 followers. ‘It’s supposed to be social media not social slagging and it’s losing its meaning. It’s pathetic, the way people are spoiling it.’
Graeme McDowell currently has 160,000 followers and explained his experince. ‘I’d say there’s three per cent nastiness and some of them are downright evil,’ he said. ‘I think they call them “trolls”.
In Twitter, or Internet speak, a troll is someone who posts off-topic messages in an online community, with the primary intent of provoking response.
As McDowell acknowledges “What you can’t do is humour them. But I think if you want to use Twitter as a tool to interact with the real fans, you have to accept there will be a few sad cases.’
Former Open champion Paul Lawrie closed his account last year, albeit for different reasons, fed up after both his Facebook and Twitter accounts were hacked into.
In the golf world the interaction between the younger golfers had become legendary with a number of them also dedicating time to answering fans queries and questions - when flight delays at airports permitted. In one of those instances, Rory McIlory clarified enquiries about his car with a photo of the vehicle parked in his garage after it had been incorrectly reported that the Holywood golfer had splashed out on a Bugatti Veyron worth some $2 million.
However McIlroy used his Twitter account to discount the claims describing them as "utter rubbish".
During the Ryder Cup at The Celtic Manor last autumn team Captain Colin Montgomerie allowed the players use Twitter and during various times of the four days the players shared photos and videos of events backstage, much to the delight of fans worldwide.
At the time McDowell, explained that Montgomerie's position came after Europe's captain had asked his team not to use the social networking site.
"Monty doesn't want to go banning Twitter," McDowell said. "We are all adults. It goes without saying that we are not going to say something that would unduly affect our team or give any strategy or secrets or tactics away.
"He trusts us obviously not to do anything too stupid out there. There's been some pretty famous mistakes made in Twitter in the past few months. We are not banned. But I don't think we'll be going crazy on it, either."
Montgomerie's reticence followed the tweet by England cricketer, Kevin Pietersen, who commented sarcastically on the social network after he was informed that he had been dropped. In doing so the batsman joined a number of athletes to find themselves caught out by the social networking site and had to issue a clarification as a result.
For Ian Poulter it was weeks after the event that he found himself at the centre of unwanted attention after he uploaded a video showing breakfast being eaten out of the Samuel Ryder trophy with his children. In the short clip, Poulter can be heard saying to the camera “This is breakfast with the Ryder cup', before tipping the cereal into the trophy, pouring over milk and eating it in his kitchen.
For many it was a step too far, even for the unorthodox English golfer, and was viewed by some as disrespectful.
In reality the enduring nature of Twitter is something that is becoming increasingly tested, despite many fans becoming addicted to the sometimes mundane news updates of sports people and celebrities. But in recent months, and indeed weeks, there are increasing instances of information making it to the airwaves that would not meet the basic editorial guidelines of quality news publications.
It started last January when former Liverpool player Ryan Babel apologised for comments he made about referee Howard Webb in the aftermath of Liverpool's FA Cup exit to Manchester United. The footballer had used his Twitter account to post a mocked-up picture of Webb wearing a United shirt, after the World Cup official awarded the home side a first-minute penalty and sent off Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.
The result was Ryan Babel accepted a charge of improper conduct from the Football Association.
On Friday Sir Alex Ferguson added his thoughts to the Twitter argument confirming that the club were looking at how best to solve the problems after Wayne Rooney became embroiled in recent days in some very negative tweets from followers
Teammate Darron Gibson closed his account within two hours after receiving largescale abuse some weeks ago.
“I don’t understand it to be honest with you,” said Ferguson . “I don’t know why anybody can be bothered with that kind of stuff. How do you find the time to do that? There are a million things you can do in your life without that.
“Get yourself down to the library and read a book. Seriously. It is a waste of time.
“It seems to have a certain momentum at the moment. Everyone seems to want to do it.”