LEE Westwood says that he now regrets some of the comments he made about being on the receiving end of crowd abuse during the Ryder Cup defeat.
After the United States won by 16 points to 11 in Louisville, to reclaim the trophy for the first time since 1999, Westwood revealed he had been abused "from start to finish".
He also said he was disappointed by USA captain Paul Azinger's attempt
s to make the crowd his team's '13th man' by holding a "pep" rally in downtown Louisville and telling him they could cheer when European players missed putts.
But yesterday Westwood moved to clarify his comments. "A lot of what I said in Valhalla during and after the Ryder Cup didn't come out quite as I intended and finished up sounding like sour grapes," said Westwood in a statement issued by his management company.
"So let me say right now that I applaud America's victory, Paul Azinger's captaincy in general and the vast majority of the watching public who witnessed a titanic struggle between two very good sides.
"I regret that I singled out a small minority of the crowd who had a go at me and my family during competition days because far and away the greater majority were impeccably behaved and got right behind their team – as did the excellent European supporters.
"My comments about the hecklers and Paul's geeing up the crowd before the event were in no way intended to be an excuse or the words of an ungracious loser because the American team performed brilliantly and fully deserved to win."
Westwood is the defending champion in this week's Quinn Insurance British Masters at The Belfry and is one of ten European Ryder Cup players who have confirmed they will tee up in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews next month.
Two-time Open champion Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey, Soren Hansen, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Oliver Wilson are also in the field from 2-5 October.
Meanwhile, Sam Torrance is among the big names in this week's Scottish Seniors Open field. The tournament, at Dalmahoy, starts on Friday.
The full article contains 367 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
