Rory McIlroy is powering down his social media activity for the time being after his spat with former PGA Champion Steve Elkington where he accused the 28-year-old Northern Irishman of looking “bored” inside the ropes.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, a tournament which McIlroy hosts, the four-time major winner admitted he semi-regretted taking the bait, whether or not Elkington intended him to. In fact, he’s already handed over his social media accounts to his wife, whom he married in April.
“I must have wrote that tweet and deleted it about five times before I actually sent it,” McIlroy said at Portstewart Golf Club. I sort of regret sending it at the end but I actually gave my wife, Erica, my phone and my Twitter and told her, ‘Change my password to something else and don’t tell me what it is’.
“So as of the time being, I’m off social media just because of that reason. I don’t need to read it. It’s stuff that shouldn’t get to you and sometimes it does.”
Change the password! After a recent spat with Steve Elkington, Rory says he’s off social media “for a while”: https://t.co/7P1k11Yvrg pic.twitter.com/6mLJpkQc36
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) July 5, 2017
“It’s not what was said. It was who said it and anyone that’s been in that environment should realize how hard golf is at times. That’s the thing that got to me more than anything else,” McIlroy explained, according to the Irish Independent.
“If it was written by a member of the media or something I could let it slide, because I can sort of say to myself, they don’t really know how it is and they don’t know what you have to deal with. But a former player that has won a major and been successful, that’s sort of why it got to me and that’s why I sort of retaliated a little bit.”
— — —
Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest goings-on in the world of golf by following the SwingxSwing Clubhouse on social media. We share stories, stats and breaking news on Twitter, keep the fun going off the course on Instagram and share any and all golf-related topics on Facebook.
Never be the odd golfer out when your friends are talking about the latest or funniest happenings in golf. Sign up for the SxS newsletter today!
