Lee Westwood has apologised following Twitter outbursts in which he rounded on trolls who criticised his performance in the final round of the US PGA Championship.

The 40-year-old carded a disappointing six-over 76, leaving him 13 shots behind winner Jason Dufner and still without a Major success to his name.

He did not seem in the mood to take any criticism of his performance and career on the social media site however, and when asked by one user to “learn how to putt”, he responded from his verified @WestwoodLee Twitter account by saying: “Will you get a life first”.

Further tweets from the account included: “You minions need to live from the inside out rather than the outside in!!!!”, “Just sick of negative a******** sat behind a keyboard with a pitiful life mate !thats all!” and “Like I give a F*** what the haters say! That’s life ! Some people will always be just a little bit better and work just a little bit harder.”

Another tweet sought to clarify that the comments were “not (aimed at) my decent human beings followers of course. Just the p***** that should be locked up by the twitter police.”

However, Westwood has this afternoon moved to calm the waters following his outburst, somewhat unsurprisingly by posting a message on Twitter.

He said: “Sincere apologies to my sponsors and true followers for my earlier comments. It was out of order and out of character ,Westy.”

Westwood had also appeared to dismiss criticism by television pundit Colin Montgomerie of his round in his earlier rant, simply replying “who?” when asked for a response to the former Ryder Cup skipper’s remarks.

Further tweets also appeared designed to goad his critics, including: “Ahhh just when I’m in the mood the haters all go quiet! They must have the porn on! Ahhh the haters have all gone quiet now ! Obviously didn’t like a bit back at em!

“Come on you girly boy trolls! I’ve only won just over 2 mill on course this year! Need you to keep me entertained a bit longer than this!

“I love slagging people back! Had enough of sitting there taking it. Bring it on!”

After retweeting a comment from a user who pointed out how much he earned compared to those criticising him, things did slow down, though, and a tweet was posted which read: “Not been hacked. Just honest. Bored now. Westy out.”

The apology was tweeted by the golfer at 4.30pm Irish time, six hours after he signed out from the outburst.