The downside to athletes on Twitter

The upside to Twitter, of course, is that athletes are able to connect personally with their fan base. The downside, as Christina Kim demonstrated on Friday, is the absence of an internal editor.

On a Twitter post, Kim wrote that she had heard that a player had cursed at a rules official at the Evian Masters. "[T]hat is just inappropriate,rude,unprofessional,and just bc she dropped off the leaderboard doesn't mean she should say that. I spit on her."

She followed that with this: "I think players should be barred from the tour for speaking to an official in that manner. That and a big old smack from me, across her face"

In her initial post, she offered hints as to whom the alleged perpetrator was, then took offense when some of her followers on Twitter predictably began speculating on her identity.

"[E]w, don't be assuming! That is not nice to be picking names out of a hat."

Kim followed that with a post in which she said she spoke to the rules official, who told her "that was not exactly what was said. So let us stop assuming."

She came back with another post scolding her followers for speculating. "Ok folks, stop naming names. Its NOT PC, bc I would have said RECENT major winner. And 'young' is all relative. Young might mean 37yrs old."

So Kim has cast suspicion on every major championship winner in the field who is 37 or younger, for an episode that may or may not have happened as she initially reported it.

Better had she just avoided the matter altogether.

-- John Strege