Ryder Cup - Westwood tones down criticism

Eurosport - Wed, 24 Sep 11:21:00 2008

Lee Westwood said his criticism of unruly US fans during last week's Ryder Cup had not meant to sound like an excuse for Europe's defeat.

Lee Westwood - 0

After the United States' 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 victory in Kentucky, Westwood said some spectators had dealt out "fairly nasty" and "pretty shameful" abuse.

The Briton had blamed US captain Paul Azinger for inciting the crowd but in a statement released on Tuesday he praised the American's captaincy.

"A lot of what I said in Valhalla during and after the Ryder Cup didn't come out quite as I intended and finished up sounding like sour grapes," Westwood said in the statement released by his management company.

"So let me say right now that I applaud America's victory, Paul Azinger's captaincy in general and the vast majority of the watching public who witnessed a titanic struggle between two very good sides.

"I regret that I singled out a small minority of the crowd who had a go at me and my family during competition days because far and away the greater majority were impeccably behaved and got right behind their team as did the excellent European supporters."

He added that he had not wanted to sound like a bad loser.

"My comments about the hecklers and Paul's geeing up the crowd before the event were in no way intended to be an excuse or the words of an ungracious loser because the American team performed brilliantly and fully deserved to win," he said.

"I may not have been too thrilled with one or two things that happened in Valhalla, but I am taking absolutely nothing away from America's win. When you're beaten by a better side, you just have to admit it.

"Well done USA. See you in Celtic Manor (for the next Ryder Cup in 2010)."

Reuters

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  1. I would like to applaud Faldo by sticking to his guns! fans have critisied him for putting the 'best' out last - Harrington - had not played well - Westwood had not played particularly well - so who knows - I am sure the players respected Faldo - lets face it he was on a looser whatever he did!! I am all for good sports behaviour and 'healthy baracking' but no abuse - One thing I did note was that I SAW NO SPIITING

    From vaddam2@..., on Wed 24 Sep 1:54PM

  2. Yup, good advice form his management company givent he amount of time Westwood spends playing in the States. Probably with hindsight the sentiments expressed are also meant although the 'sour grapes' & 'sore loser' type comments make far better copy when taken out of context of the whole text.
    A politically good move which I hope will prevent Lee from becoming the Monty hate figure in the future.

    From The Trout, on Wed 24 Sep 1:06PM

  3. He's backing down beacause his agents told him to do it. Which makes sense given he'll have to play 3 Majors in USA.

    From Robert, on Wed 24 Sep 7:22AM

  4. I play golf 4 days per week so I can be considered a golf enthusiast and had been looking forward to seeing the Ryder Cup, However what we saw has nothing to do with golf what with cheering missed puts and general roudiness. I switched off very quickly and saw very little. Quick, let's have some respect back in golf - surely we are not going down the road of the football lout !
    From Eddie A

    From Eddie A, on Wed 24 Sep 6:39AM

  5. Good to see Lee retract from his earlier position .. no excuse for the heckling he received and some of these extremists should be ejected ...but the vast majority of US fans did not go over the top ... I have watched a lot of Ryder Cups and as I recall, there was a lot of geeing up on the Euro side at Valderrama to name one venue... nobody better at this than Sergio .... at this level, the US and Euro players need to be able to play through this. This is what the Ryder Cup has become - with tremendous passion on both side including players and fans. May not please the golfing purists - but is that necessarily a bad thing?

    From Bobby J, on Tue 23 Sep 11:04PM

  6. WALLIS W,

    you and your fellow spammers are making these sports forums a misery for genuine users.

    PLEASE @#$% OFF AND DIE.

    From EDWARD, on Tue 23 Sep 10:34PM
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