Assistant athletic director fired after heckling Ian Poulter on Twitter
Ian Poulter got a man fired recently for heckling him at the Valspar Championship. Strange but true tales from social media and the PGA Tour.
By
Kyle Porter
•
1 min read
It turns out, there are consequences for your actions on social media. I know that will shock some people, but you can't just say whatever you want without repercussions. Especially when you're saying it to a golfer with over two million followers.
A man named J.J. Downum, who was an assistant athletic director at Florida Southern College, tweeted about how he heckled Poulter at the Valspar Championship recently. Poulter caught wind of it and retweeted it but tagged Downum's university in the retweet. Uh oh.
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
Downum's university then fired him for the tweets.
"He's no longer employed at the institution,'' Pete Meyer, Florida Southern's director of athletics and dean of wellness told The Ledger recently.
That seems a little harsh to me, but I suppose Poulter got what he wanted. Hopefully it was worth it for Downum. Maybe the U.S. can hire him for October to follow Poulter's groups at the Ryder Cup.
