A second person has now lost his job involving tweets directed at England golfer Ian Poulter.
At last weeks Valspar Championship Poulter was unnecessarily heckled by J.J. Downum, an assistant athletic director for development at Florida Southern College (FSC), as Poulter walked from the 12th green to 13th tee on the Copperhead course.
Downum reportedly yelled: “You will hit it in the water!” and “You will not make the Ryder Cup team!”.
Poulter approached a police officer standing close by and also spoke with marshals seeking to get the heckled removed from the course.
The incident escalated when Downum went onto the Twitter bragging about the incident.
I’m sure @FSC_Athletics & @FscSports are really proud of your professionalism. I wish you the very best Ian pic.twitter.com/jqFa3WVuDC
— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) March 12, 2016
However the episode has taken anther twist and after @DownumFSC twitter page was shut down with the FSC Director, and Downum’s boss indicating he no longer works for the institution.
“He’s no longer employed at this institution,” said Peter Meyer, Florida Southern’s Director of Athletics and Dean of Wellness.
Two years ago, then PGA of American Ted Bishop was sacked and then forced to apologise to Poulter over his “lil girl” tweet following Poulter’s comments post the release of Nick Faldo’s autobiography.
Bishop had tweeted to Poulter: “Faldo’s record stands by itself. Six majors and all-time RC points. Yours vs. His? Lil Girl.” He also criticized Poulter on Facebook, writing, “Sounds like a little school girl squealing during recess. C’MON MAN!”
He didn’t give the matter any more thought until he checked his phone during a formal dinner and noted the reaction to his tweet and that someone had called him a sexist. He deleted the tweet and the Facebook post.
Bishop tried to contact the PGA of America about making a public apology and when he didn’t get a response, started to realize that he might lose his job.
