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Ian Poulter goes ballistic on U.S. Open greens

On Sunday night, Poulter, who finished 11 over par, finally did so, posting a 328-word rant on his Instagram account.

He called the greens at Chambers Bay “most disgraceful surface” he has ever seen at a major, and posted this photo of a weedy-looking putting surface.

A photo posted by Ian Poulter (@ianjamespoulter) on

Poulter believes the conditions of the greens were so poor that if not for the event being a major, many golfers would have refused to play:

“If this was a regular PGA tour event lots of players would have withdrawn and gone home on Wednesday, but players won’t do that for a major. They were simply the worst most disgraceful surface I have ever seen on any tour in all the years I have played. The US Open deserves better than that. And the extra money that they have earn’t this year from @FoxSports, they could easily have relayed the greens so we could have had perfect surfaces. Simply not good enough and deeply disappointing for a tournament of this magnitude.”

Poulter called the USGA liars for saying before the tournament that the course was in “superb” condition.

“Mike Davis the head of the @USGA unfortunately hasn’t spoke the truth about the conditions of the greens,” Poulter wrote. “It is disgraceful that the @USGA hasn’t apologized about the greens they simply have said ‘we are thrilled the course condition this week.’ …I don’t like it when people lie on camera to try and save face.”

Poulter went on to apologize to the fans who attended the event, but weren’t able to see due to high slopes, stands, and “unusually restrictive fan access“:

“And to all you fans that paid good money to try and watch us play golf but couldn’t see anything on most holes because it wasn’t possible to stand on huge slopes or see around stands, I apologize and I’m sorry you wasted your money traveling to be disappointed.”

Poulter isn’t alone in his belief. Billy Horschel, who finished three under par, has been one of the most vocal golfers throughout the US Open in criticizing the poor conditions at Chambers Bay.

“I think a lot of the players, and I’m one of them, have lost some respect for the USGA and this championship this year for the greens,” Horschel said at his press conference. “Mike Davis can push back as much as he wants, but when you have a majority of the players commenting publicly — and some of them aren’t because they don’t want to get the pushback from it — then there’s an issue. I don’t know if he’s just trying to sugarcoat it so it doesn’t look bad. I heard someone say the TV is making the greens look worse than they are. That’s a complete lie.”

This article was originally published on Business Insider. Copyright 2015.

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