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Poulter rants on Twitter

Doral - England's Ian Poulter has criticised Japan's Hideki Matsuyama on Twitter and referred to him as an "idiot" for damaging the 13th green at Doral with his putter and not repairing it.

Matsuyama apologised to him early on Saturday before they teed off together in the Cadillac Championship.

Matsuyama missed a 7-foot par putt in the second round on Friday and slammed his putter into the green, leaving what one caddie described as a 2cm gash.

Poulter was in the group behind Matsuyama.

The damage was in the line of South Africa's Charl Schwartzel's 12-foot par putt, and a rules official was called out to repair the damage before Schwartzel putted. He missed and made bogey.

The incident escaped noticed until Poulter, with over 1.6 million followers, took to Twitter late on Friday.

"Playing with Matsuyama tomo. He buried his putter in the 13th green 5 ft from the hole, Referee had to repair the crater. Because he didn't," the first tweet said.

Poulter followed with two more tweets:"Why should Matsuyama leave a crater in the green for others to putt over, or have to call a referee to repair the damage. Idiot."

"Im no saint & first to say. But that was disgusting. I wouldn't bury a putter in a green 5 ft from a hole & have players behind deal with it."

Matsuyama, the No 22 player in the world who last year became the first rookie to win the Japan Golf Tour money list, was already on the practice range when Poulter arrived. He immediately walked to the other end of the range with his interpreter, Bob Turner, and apologised.

Poulter shook his hand and said, "I make loads of mistakes."

"If you're going to do it, repair it," he explained to Matsuyama, who nodded his head.

Poulter ended the brief exchange by saying, "No words today," indicating that there was no need to bring it up again during their third round.

Turner said Matsuyama already apologised to American Jason Dufner, who was in the group with Poulter, and would seek out Schwartzel.

"He wishes he could apologise to the field," Turner said. "All he can do is promise not to do it again. No excuses."

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