Tuesday began with news that the PGA of America formed a star-studded, 11-member "Ryder Cup Task Force" to address the country's continued struggles against the Europeans in golf's marquee team event.
The task force includes most of the biggest names in golf — on either side of the pond: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Raymond Floyd and Tom Lehman.
Later in the day, seven-time Ryder Cup champion Lee Westwood made bigger headlines with this:
Of course, the Americans' most recent defeat, a 16.5-11.5 thumping by the Euros in Scotland last month, was followed by an amazing news conference during which Phil Mickelson openly criticized captain Tom Watson with Watson sitting at the podium with him. That was followed by a report that a team meeting on the eve of the tournament's final day turned ugly after Watson ripped players in what was supposed to be a bonding session.
Despite the Americans' state of turmoil, Westwood said he did not mean to take a swipe at the US team, but you can imagine that didn't matter much to his haters. Some of them focused on Westwood's lack of major victories, to which he replied:
Many of the tweets were since deleted by the posters (or the accounts were deleted altogether), but here are some of the highlights:
Westwood expressed surprise that his tweet was taken as a swipe at the Americans — and he tried to clarify the original intent of his initial post:
Regardless of what Westwood meant, he clearly struck a nerve.
And Westwood wasn't the only Team Europe player to express pride in his team's record Tuesday. Responding to an Associated Press reporter's tweet that the "secret password" for the U.S. task force must be "Hindsight," Ian Poulter had a quick comeback that was more than simply binary code:
That refers to the Americans' recent Ryder Cup record.
The tweets Tuesday follow on the heels of Graeme McDowell's remarks that he found it "a little bit disappointing to see the [Americans'] dirty laundry being out in public."
More from Golfweek:
• The clear choice: Appoint Azinger as '16 Ryder Cup captain
• Bikinis and birdies? Only in Vegas
• McDowell disappointed by U.S. airing 'dirty laundry' after Ryder Cup
• Rare pair: High school friends Jon Curran, Keegan Bradley make it to PGA Tour together
I thought it was 0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0 @dougferguson405 Just saw the release on the big Ryder Cup Task Force. The secret password: Hindsight.
— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) October 14, 2014
