Jordan Spieth vowed to be more cautious when reacting to negative comments on social media after he was labelled "garbage" and "very average" by a critic.
Spieth expressed his regret at responding to an Instagram user following his erratic five-over 76 in the opening round of the Valspar Championship at Palm Harbor, where he is defending champion.
The world No 1 battled hard to make the cut with a 68 on day two before explaining his actions to reporters, admitting his comments the previous afternoon were made in the heat of the moment after a "tough round".
Spieth was clearly riled when a user wrote: "If his putter is not working, he's garbage. Every other aspect of his game is very average."
The reigning Masters and US Open champion replied: "Couldn't be further from the truth troll. Go do research before hating" - a comment that he later deleted.
Spieth also won backing from world No 3 Rory McIlroy, who wrote on Twitter: "No, he's not TW, he's not slumping and he's not done! He's a double major winning 22 year old. He'll be just fine!!"
After making the cut with a shot to spare on two over, Spieth said: "You'll probably never see me do that again because obviously it was seen and known and - just really frustrating. There's really not a point. I should never respond to any of that, just let it go and by the time the next tournament rolls around no one even remembers it.
"There's going to be plenty of people to have their own opinion, and plenty of people that don't like the way I play the game or handle things. I've got to be confident in what I'm doing and know that many more do appreciate it.
"I was a bit bored on Thursday afternoon and I was just looking at my feed, and after a tough round not good things are popping up. So you can imagine if someone was talking to you like that. Anyway, I got over it quickly.''
Spieth was also angered by a tweet on the PGA Tour's official account that was taken from his post-round interviews following his wayward opener.
The offending tweet, which was subsequently deleted, read: "What good is kicking the door other than hurting my foot and (having to) withdraw?'', and Spieth felt the Tour should not have selected that particular line as he meant it purely as a joke.
"Seriously? That's the quote you're going to use out of that article?'' Spieth added. "It made it seem like I was going with getting hurt and having to withdraw.''