Ian Poulter has denied verbally abusing a marshal at the Scottish Open on Sunday, after the volunteer wrote a letter of complaint to the European Tour.
In a copy of the letter posted on his blog, marshal Quintin Jardine said Poulter delivered a "shower of expletives" after hooking his tee shot into a bush at the first hole at Gullane Golf Club on Saturday.
Jardine said that even though a fellow marshal had located the ball, Poulter had been upset that he (Jardine) had not ventured into the bush in search of it.
"Industrial language doesn't bother me, but truculent aggression does," Jardine wrote.
Poulter, who finished tied 30th in the tournament ahead of this week's The Open, did not deny using choice words, but the Englishman said he had not been angry with the marshal.
"I might have said a few expletives at myself up there, but I reiterated to him after I played my shot out of the bush that I wasn't angry at him," the world No. 29 said after the final round on Sunday.
"I don't abuse volunteers. I might have done it 16, 15, 17 years ago when I was a bit younger. But these guys are here to help us out.
"But he's taken what I said to him the wrong way, which is a shame."