One of the downsides of having a smartphone is that the potential for a damaging mistake is always at your fingertips. Gaffes happen to everyone, including those with a large audience and a household name. Here's what we mean:
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In 2014, Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson has all but settled on Bill Haas as his final captain's pick until Webb Simpson sends Watson a 4 a.m. text message that changes his mind the day of the team announcement. Simpson wins half a point in the two matches he plays, and the Cup ends in a five-point loss for the United States.
During a rain delay at the 2014 PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy is waiting for play to resume when he reaches for his phone. Just as he is typing in his passcode—4589—a camera shifts to McIlroy and reveals it to the world. "Passcode changed," Rory tweets minutes later. "Now time to play some golf!"
At the 2012 Ryder Cup, McIlroy mixes up his time zones, sets his smartphone alarm for the wrong time and almost misses his singles match against Keegan Bradley. "I was casually making my way out of the hotel room, and I got a call saying, 'You have 25 minutes till tee off,' " McIlroy said. "I was a bit worried." A police escort gets McIlroy there with 10 minutes to spare, and he wins, 2 and 1.
In October 2014, PGA of America president Ted Bishop is on his way to meet Nick Faldo for dinner when he calls Ian Poulter a "Lil Girl" in a tweet sent from his phone in response to Poulter's criticism of Faldo in his autobiography. The tweet is denounced as sexist, and the fallout prompts the PGA of America to remove Bishop from office a month before his term ends.
Tiger Woods' phone is the subject—and, according to some reports, the catalyst—behind Tiger's infamous sex scandal. Did Elin Nordegren learn of an affair after finding a series of text exchanges with Tiger's then-mistress Rachel Uchitel? It only gets worse after a large swatch of raunchy text exchanges with various mistresses starts leaking to the tabloid press.
A faulty charger means the battery on Jim Furyk's phone dies before his alarm can go off, causing him to miss his pro-am tee time and therefore disqualifying him from the 2010 Barclays tournament. "I always use my phone as an alarm, and it had no power this morning," Furyk said. "I don't know if something happened with the charger or what, but I never got it."