Europe players can use Twitter at Ryder Cup

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell has said the Europe team had not been banned from using social media.

McDowell, who like Ian Poulter, is a regular poster on Twitter, has clarified Colin Montgomerie's position after Europe's captain said he had asked his team not to use the social networking site.

"Monty doesn't want to go banning Twitter. We are all adults. It goes without saying that we are not going to say something that would unduly affect our team or give any strategy or secrets or tactics away,” The Guardian quoted McDowell, as saying.

He added, "He simply just said to us, 'You know, be sensible. Don't be saying anything stupid.' He trusts us obviously not to do anything too stupid out there. There's been some pretty famous mistakes made in Twitter in the past few months. We are not banned. But I don't think we'll be going crazy on it, either."

Earlier it had been reported that the Europe and United States Ryder Cup teams have been asked to cease all their tweeting activity till the tournament ends.

According to the BBC, Europe's captain Colin Montgomerie and US captain Corey Pavin has confirmed the decision, saying that tweeting could lead to serious “trouble”.   

"Tweeting and social network sites can get one into trouble. It's not a ban as such, we've just asked the players not to and they agreed,” said Montgomerie ahead of the Ryder Cup, which is scheduled to begin at Celtic Manor on Friday.

Four players in Europe's team and five from the US side actively use Twitter. The European players like US Open winner Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari and those from the US team -Stewart Cink, Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan and Bubba Watson are the ones who frequently tweet.  

Earlier, footballers Jozy Altidore and Darren Bent were in trouble for ill-advised public comments, while swimmer Stephanie Rice lost a sponsorship deal and was forced to make a public apology for an allegedly homophobic comment on Twitter.