Graeme McDowell told Sky Sports News he had some sympathy for Ian Poulter after his run-in with a cameraman.
Northern Irishman taking rant at cameraman with pinch of salt
Graeme McDowell has admitted he had some sympathy for Ian Poulter after his run-in with a cameraman at the French Open, but insisted players need to deal with that on a daily basis.
Poulter launched into an angry rant at a photographer at the French Open for taking a picture during his swing, causing him to mishit a shot into the water.
The Englishman was in contention for the title at the time and claims the snapper cost him the trophy - while also adding he would not play at the event in 2010.
Ryder Cup team-mate McDowell has taken Poulter's outburst with a pinch of salt, noting the flamboyant star's love of being in the headlines, but he did have some sympathy.
"Everyone understands that problem, you never like to be four holes to go and in contention in an event and feel like a cameraman has affected your chances," McDowell told
Sky Sports News
Sympathise
"Obviously I sympathise with Ian and we all know he likes to embellish stories. But that's a tough one, no one likes to be on the wrong end of one of those.
"Ian likes a bit of controversy, he'll play on it a little bit, but that's the way it is - he's a character. He's an extremely talented player as well and we sympathise with him."
McDowell believes that golfers need to put up with the odd photographer clicking at the wrong time as a small price to pay for the media exposure and subsequent lucrative rewards of being a golf professional.
He also adds that no one has to deal with more than Tiger Woods, who always has enormous galleries following him on every hole of every tournament he plays at.
"I certainly wouldn't like guys clicking on my backswing all the time but guys have to put up with it more than others, obviously Tiger has to deal with it on a day-to-day basis but maybe the rest of us don't have a hundred photographers following us around every day," added McDowell.
"It's an interesting one, but there's no way around it, we need the media exposure, we need people following us around it's what raises our profile and the profile of the game, but obviously we hope the cameraman can be as professional as possible."
