Lee McCoy Apologises Then Closes Account After Controversial Tweets

American pro golfer Lee McCoy quits twitter following an outburst criticising young fans at a recent Web.com Tour event. By Adam Stephens

Lee McCoy Apologises Then Closes Account After Controversial Tweets

Web.com Tour pro Lee McCoy has closed his Twitter account follow questionable tweets about young fans during a recent tournament.

The American received a number of complaints after the tweets and issued an apology before coming off of the social media platform.

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McCoy, 24, had just finished his final round at the Club Colombia Championship in Bogota in which he endured a frustrating finish, carding two bogeys in the final three holes to plummet down the leaderboard to 20^th place.

The American then decided to vent some frustration on Twitter.

Some tweets were targeted at young fans asking him for 'free stuff'.

One tweet read: “There were at least 30 kids out there who were there only to try to get free stuff from us. So no, I’m not grateful for them being out there”.

The pro golfer also explained how some kids asked for his hat, glove and shoes after he walked off 18 with a terrible bogey, saying that the kid "learned a life lesson".

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McCoy has since offered an apology for his actions in an interview with Golf digest as well as deleting the tweets in question and his account.

A timeline of McCoy's controversial tweets (Image: @TronCarterNLU):

The winner of the Club Colombia Championship Ben Taylor interracts with the 30 children who McCoy slammed on Twitter:

McCoy apologised after the ordeal.

“Part of being a professional golfer and constantly being in the public eye means you have to learn how to handle different requests and situations some of which are out of the ordinary," he told Golf Digest.

His fellow golf pros did not take too kindly to his tweets. Steve Flesch said, “ The lesson will be yours if you continue to shun these kids who dream to walk in your shoes one day. Be careful how quickly you run them off.”

As for whether or not he'll return to Twitter, McCoy said that his "gut feeling" is yes. "I really like the engagement," he said, "and giving fans perspective on what it's like to play professional golf."

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McCoy received vile abuse including death threats in the aftermath.

He posted this tweet:

You may recognise Lee McCoy's name from a past story on the Golf Monthly website, that's because he played behind a golfer who shot 127 in US Open qualifying and posted his scorecard on Twitter.

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