Ryder Cup Players Banned From Twitter

Twitter can be a very distracting waste of time and both U.S. and European Ryder Cup coaches have apparently realized that the distraction created by the micro-blogging service may be too distracting to players during their biggest international event of the year, banning the service for all three days of Ryder Cup play.

U.S. Captain Corey Pavin and European Captain Colin Montgomerie announced to their teams that no Twitter messages will be allowed during all three-days of play which begins this Friday at Celtic Manor.

Pavin announced:

“We have decided as a whole to not tweet this week,” adding, “It can be a little bit distracting sometimes. I think it’s important to focus on the Ryder Cup and playing the matches and just enjoying camaraderie with the team itself.”

Montgomerie took the distraction one step further, asking his teammates to avoid all social networking and other “distracting” websites so they can focus on tournament play.

According to BusinessWeek, Montgomerie released the following statement:

“We feel that tweeting and Facebook and all of these social sites can get one’s self into trouble,” going on to add, “On Monday, Oct. 4, yes, you’ll find the team probably on social network sites. But not until then.”

U.S. player Rickie Fowler confirmed the Twitter ban on none other than Twitter:

“Guys I’m sorry to inform you but the news is true … we will not be allowed to tweet while we are in Wales … Cpt’s orders!!”

If I was on the Ryder cup, I’d be shouting out random 140 character long sentences during play, perhaps a fan or two would pick them up and keep my fans updates. I can see it now, some guy trying to figure out if what he’s about to say is 140 characters or less.

In any case, the ban on Twitter shows just how much of a distraction the service can be for many people, including professionals dedicated to their job.