Ryder Cup captains ban players from using Twitter

PLAYERS competing in this week's Ryder Cup have been instructed by the two captains, Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin, to refrain from social networking activities like posting Twitter or Facebook messages.

• Graeme McDowell tweeted about Twitter ban

It follows the recent furore surrounding Kevin Pietersen, the former England cricket captain, after he revealed his omission from the Twenty20 series against Pakistan in a tweet and, already this week, a posting by Ian Poulter has been removed from his site.

The Englishman, who regularly tweets from the course, described having to be evacuated from the Celtic Manor Res-ort hotel in the early hours of yesterday morning due to a fire alarm as "a shocker" but that was subsequently taken off.

As the American team flew into Cardiff yesterday morning to prepare for Friday's start, European captain Montgomerie and Pavin, his visiting counterpart, both revealed they had asked their players to stop engaging in such activities until the match is over.

"It's not a ban because if somebody does it how can you punish them for it?" said Montgomerie. "I have just asked my team not to and they have said, 'okay, that's fine, we'll start tweetering or twittering again on Monday, 4 October'."

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In addition to being fined, Pietersen was shamed into making am apology over an outburst on Twitter after he was left out of the England squad for the recent matches against Pakistan.

"Kevin Pietersen's error changed my view on this," added Montgomerie.

"I don't know who tweets or who doesn't tweet on our team - the captain certainly doesn't - but whoever does has been asked not to. I think it is important we focus on the job in hand this week. We are here to try and regain the trophy."

After flying in from Atlanta on "a typical red-eye flight overnight", Pavin revealed his players had also been asked to concentrate on matters at hand this week.

"We talked about it and the team has come to a consensus not to do it," said the American captain. "It can be a little bit distracting sometimes and I think it is important to focus on the Ryder Cup and playing in the matches.

"They will have the opportunity to go on Twitter or Facebook or whatever it may be next week and for the rest of their lives."

But the Twitter 'ban' appeared to be slow in taking effect. Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, with a mere 16,533 followers, said in late afternoon: "We have a team meeting at 6, so will keep you posted on the tweeting ban ... let's hope not!!!! Go Europe!!!!"

US player Stewart Cink, who won the Open Championship in 2009 and has more than 1 million followers on Twitter, appeared to accept his captain's instructions. "We're finally off to Wales!!," he tweeted. "Won't be tweeting until we get back. I guess I'll have to pass the down time actually reading or something."

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