The best, dumbest and most nauseating golf Twitter spats of 2018

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For all of #GolfTwitter’s goods, like the chatter on a Major championship Sunday (specifically about Tiger’s arrival), the fans who provide us with grainy video that would normally never see the light of day, and of course, anything involving Patrick Reed, there are an equal or greater amount of evils. Namely, dumb, sometimes even nauseating spats.

Some are quite enjoyable, like Rory McIlroy and Steve Elkington’s famous back-and-forth during the 2017 US Open. Others (pretty much all the others) make you want to throw your phone through the wall, then go grab your computer to hop back on in case you missed anything. This could be described as an “addiction,” but let’s just go with “unhealthy obsession” because that sounds better even though they are one in the same.

Despite Grayson Murray deleting the app entirely in May of 2017, we still had plenty of great exchanges on the social media app that kept us scrolling for more. Here were some of our favourites, and if you find yourself on this list, please keep ‘em coming. This list is not meant to discourage, rather to celebrate the Brandels and the Kesslers on another great year of online beefing. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Justine Reed vs the haters

While she denied any knowledge to Golf Digest of tweeting out in defence of her husband from the @JustineKReed account on Sunday morning of the Ryder Cup, we have a sneaking suspicion that the account does in fact belong to her:

Maybe it’s the fact it’s her name and a picture of her, or the fact that all 14 of her tweets are in defence of the Masters champion. Just a hunch. While all her replies are entertaining, the most notable spat came that Sunday morning in France, when she added fuel to the fire regarding the Reed/Spieth split:

Definitely NOT Justine K. Reed.

Jimmy Walker’s backstopping admission sparks heated debate

Prior to Walker’s admission, “backstopping” was merely a conspiracy theory that existed on the periphery of #GolfTwitter. Then Walker’s comments inserted the debate into the mainstream, leading to a heated back and forth with former Australian tour pro Michael Clayton:

https://twitter.com/JimmyWalkerPGA/status/1005579145387085824

https://twitter.com/JimmyWalkerPGA/status/1005579885258133505

https://twitter.com/JimmyWalkerPGA/status/1005580417267888129

https://twitter.com/JimmyWalkerPGA/status/1005580981938647041

https://twitter.com/JimmyWalkerPGA/status/1005581406171525120

https://twitter.com/JimmyWalkerPGA/status/1005581572521775104

A few other tour pros weighed in on the matter, almost all in favour of Clayton. Oddly enough, the issue never really came up in any meaningful way for the remainder of the golf season.

Peter Kessler vs literally anyone, anywhere, at any time

To be honest, the height of Peter Kessler’s career was before my time. All I know of him are his tweets, and let me tell ya, they are electric. The guy will dive into the mud with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Yes, he can be very aggressive, but that only makes him even more of a must-follow. Some of his greatest hits in 2018 include going after Brandel Chamblee:

https://twitter.com/peterkessler/status/1059033128734466048

https://twitter.com/peterkessler/status/1059037419209662464

Going after Ian Poulter, and generating a response:

https://twitter.com/peterkessler/status/1059092050451333120

And taking shots at a video made by No Laying Up:

https://twitter.com/peterkessler/status/1057401308918022144

His takes really can be too hot to handle, and we barely even scratched the surface. For more fire, start scrolling away here.

Lee McCoy apologises for controversial comments, deletes Twitter account

Following a final-round 67 at the Web.com Tour’s Club Colombia Championship back in February, McCoy made some questionable comments about the young fans in attendance that week, as well as South America. The backlash was enough to cause McCoy to not only delete all the tweets, but his account entirely:

https://twitter.com/bowdo83/status/963053324269387776

McCoy has since rejoined Twitter, and it’s fair to chalk up his comments as one pretty bad moment. In speaking to Golf Digest shortly afterwards, he seemed as contrite as he could have been.

Braindead FOX Sports Radio host says Tiger dominated a “bad era” of golf

The guy who made this statement deserves absolutely no recognition, and to be honest I still have never heard or seen what the guy looks like, so he failed miserably in his mission to grab long-term attention with these comments. As for short-term attention, he succeeded, and it produced some fiery shots back from #GolfTwitter:

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Some just shouldn’t be allowed to see the light of day.

Brandel Chamblee calls Dustin Johnson’s drive in Hawaii the best shot in golf history

Brandel deserves his own list of Twitter spats, but for time’s sake, we’ll go back to the first real #GolfTwitter debate of 2018. It all began on January 8 following Dustin Johnson’s win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, a victory that included, in Chamblee’s opinion, the greatest shot in golf history:

No.1 shot … EVER! Let’s see how everyone felt about that:

Say what you want about Brandel, but the man knows how to incite a Twitter riot. Is he the Stephen A. Smith of golf? #EmbraceDebate