Steve Elkington is facing potential disciplinary action over tweets he has made while playing the Senior British Open this week, according to The Telegraph.
Elkington’s troubles were laid out Saturday morning in this subhead on the newspaper’s online edition: “Australian golfer Steve Elkington was given a police escort for the start of his third round of the Senior Open at Royal Birkdale on Saturday following the extraordinary and potentially racist Twitter outburst in which he savaged the town of Southport and a `Pakistani robber guy.’”
The Telegraph said a tournament representative speaking on behalf of the Royal & Ancient, the European Senior Tour and the Champions Tour said the matter is being reviewed and disciplinary action could follow.
While the Twitter posts in question have been deleted from Elkington’s account, Elkington did release a statement of apology before Saturday’s round, according to the newspaper.
“Being Australian, I was unaware that my use of language in relation to the Pakistani people would cause offence,” Elkington’s statement read, according to the news report. “But having been made aware I now deeply regret the use of that terminology.
“Southport is a beautiful place and I have enjoyed playing at Royal Birkdale as my positive content on Twitter has shown. My comments were borne out of frustration over what had happened to a colleague.
“I am prepared to adhere to any disciplinary action that the Championship sees fit.”
The Telegraph also reported:
“Elkington’s original Tweet, posted on Friday evening, was soon deleted. However, a second Tweet appeared on his Twitter account on Saturday morning, claiming that `a couple of caddies got rolled by some Pakis...’ That post was also removed soon afterwards . . .
“As well as making his comments about Pakistanis, Elkington, who won the US PGA Championship in 1995, was scathing in his first attack on Southport, listing its features as: `fat tattooed guy, fat tattooed girl, trash, ice cream stored guy and s***t food.’”