Rory McIlroy bans himself from Twitter after spat with Steve Elkington

Rory McIlroy regrets online feud with Steve Elkington and banned himself from Twitter.

A few weeks ago four-time major champion Rory McIlroy got into a Twitter spat with one-time major champion Steve Elkington. After missing the cut at the US Open at Erin Hills, Elkington suggested (on Twitter) that McIlroy looked bored playing golf which began a bit of to-and-fro between the pair.

It started like this:

More like 200mil… not bad for a “bored” 28 year old… plenty more where that came from. pic.twitter.com/R2nigEaee7

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) June 17, 2017

Elkington is a serial stirrer on Twitter and McIlroy isn’t the first to get into a bit of online argy-bargy with him. The tweets went back and forth for a bit with McIlroy pulling him up on his grammar:

That’s why jack designed 100’s of golf courses… and it’s knew… mustn’t have taught grammar in the 50’s….

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) June 17, 2017

On the eve of the Irish Open at Portstewart Golf Club, McIlroy said he regretted the exchange and put a self-imposed ban on Twitter for himself.

“I must have wrote that tweet and deleted it about five times before I actually sent it,” McIlroy said at Portstewart Golf Club on the eve of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, according to the Irish Independent.

“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.”