BBC Awards vitriol: A 'farce,' Poulter says

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an otherwise innocuous awards show that was anything but this time around, most of the controversy created by golf.

Jockey A.P. McCoy and World Darts champion Phil Taylor finished one-two in the SPOTY, ahead of U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and England's Lee Westwood, No. 1 in golf's World Ranking. This didn't sit well with England's Ian Poulter, who expressed his displeasure via Twitter.

"Why Poulter was Tweeting mad!" a headline in the Daily Mail said.

"IAN POULTER TEED OFF AT 'FARCE,' a headline in the Daily Star said.

Here's a Poulter sampling from Twitter:

-- "BBC Spoty farce, sorry how could @Graeme_McDowell or @WestwoodLee not win. GMac wins a major westy world no 1. That's Bollox"

-- "Darts comes second in the BBC Spoty voting get a grip. Congrats to AP. Great sportsman and a gent but wasn't my choice"

England's Oliver Wilson also weighed in via Twitter: "Just getting #spoty update, can't believe westy nor gmac won or even placed! Absolute Rubbish."

Then there was Colin Montgomerie, who received the coach of the year award for the European Ryder Cup victory.

"Colin Montgomerie coach of the year? You must be joking," said the headline on a blog post by Lawrence Donegan in the Guardian. Donegan wrote: "...if you know anything about the Ryder Cup you will know the title of 'captain' carries about as much weight as a punch in the guts from Gyles Brandreth. Bad captains win Ryder Cups, great captains lose them. It's the players, stupid."

Former British Open champion Paul Lawrie was among those mocking this award.

"Didn't know monty was a coach? Must ask him for a lesson........," he posted on Twitter.

"What has pete cowan [sic] got to do to win coach of the year"

Pete Cowen coaches both Westwood and McDowell.

-- John Strege