Flashback By Unpopular Demand: Charlie Beljan's Brief Life On Twitter

I really didn't want to bring up Charlie Beljan's brief time on Twitter, considering the poor lad was breaking down Friday and suffered the indignity of a carting off the Disney property by government health care workers, but Twitterers have been passing the link around.

So here goes, Children's Miracle Network Classic winner Beljan's infamous comments about the President and even worse in my view, vitriol directed toward an innocent PGA Tour fan of his who works in Penn State athletics.

Eventually--well in about two hours time--Ponte Vedra SWAT (or more likely his agent) moved in to convince Beljan to delete his Twitter account.

Comments

[Dean]

Thanks for calling him out for his repugnant posts.

[Adam S]

C'mon .... seriously? These aren't offensive or even interesting. Extremely tame by Twitter vitriol standards.

[DavidC]

Government health care workers...thanks for the laugh.

Why I'm not on Twitter: equating the President with pedophile protectors getting branded as tame.

[Juno]

Can't cheer for this guy. Hope he loses his tour card soon and fades away. This kind of hateful behavior has no place in professional sports. You're one of the best golfers in the world and this is the kind of example you set?
I don't care what your political affiliation is, the president deserves respect regardless of whether or not you voted for him. Calling him a douchebag and suggesting he's the same as a pedophile is just awful. I hope this story gets around more.

[Amen Coroner]

Par for the pga tour player course. Sad.

[red legged frog]

see the post 6 spots down. ever think Beljan might be fighting similar demons especially after what happened friday. the guy knows he screwed up and took the twitter account down. why the gratuitous attack now?

[PABoy]

He made a mistake posting that anyone of us on hear can do the same...

I was enthralled watching him win this weekend, well done

[Geoff]

red legged frog,
The link was making the rounds on Twitter and I felt it was pertinent to the discussion that we've seen of late with players, social media and in light of his win. I actually linked it on Tuesday night as well when Pat Perez deleted his account. Beljan's the one who made ridiculous statements that he didn't apologize for. In particular, to the fan of his that he insulted which bugs me a lot more than disrespecting the president. You call it demons, I call it disrespectful.

[Ted Ray's Pipe]

This isn't a political story as much as it is about a golfer who feels the need to communicate his political views in a pretty immature fashion. That is why it is on a golf blog.

[RickABQ]

As Charlie is a UNM Lobo alum (nice shout-out by Charlie to Coach Glen Millican of UNM while walking up the fairway) I was happy to see him do well, and the same with former Lobo Lumpy Herron. Charlie was a student in a couple of my wife's classes at UNM and so I have followed him a little closer than the average PGA rookie. I'm not much into the Tweet thing - as I have said before I think it causes more trouble than what it is worth in most people's hands, but to each their own. While more crudely stated and disrespectful, Charlie's opinions on politics are IMO about as dumb and clueless as those stated by a certain 18 major winning, "best player ever" guy of a couple of weeks ago. To each their own again. However, I do think last Tuesday Obama got the best revenge on all the haters - simply stated... SCOREBOARD!

[RickABQ]

Also, too. The picture of his kid in the bowl surrounded by golf balls was pretty damn cute.

[jjshaka]

I would bet for most of the people here, if he had called a conservative Republican a douchebag , there would be little issue.

[knottypine]

First off, these guys are crazy to engage fans on Twitter at a personal level. If they do it long enough, they are going to say something that causes them trouble. Not justifying his comments about the President. I'd like to the office should command a certain amount of respect, but my guess is the outraged liberals here were just as harsh in their assessment of Bush, the only difference being their comments weren't held up for public inspection. Again, Beljan shouldn't have made the comments, particularly in a public forum, but lets drop the faux outrage. Unfortunately, this is what passes for political dialogue in a country where elections are decided by 30-second commercials designed to paint the opposition as a crazed lunatic out to destroy the country in one way or another. Beljan, for better or worse, is a byproduct of this. I frankly don't care what any of these guys think about politics. I watch them to be entertained by their golf. Nothing more, nothing less.

[red legged frog]

i was referring to the christina kim post. charlie has some excess baggage that normal people don't which is no excuse but should be a mitigating factor. he paid a price at the time of the twitter post and given what we now know of his mental state seems like a dash of leniency is in order.

[digsouth]

@JJshaka I believe the revolt against this ''call'' against any POTUS would be met with dismay by the reader/writer base here.

When Charlie's comments are ''Extremely tame by Twitter vitriol standards'' it matters when the High Office is the target, be he a DEM or a GOP.

Citizenship demands respect. Act like an adult and help the youth of America rise, Charlie. You are a new father. Be a man. You should have had a blip on your personal radar, an anxiety attack; you shamed yourself.

Now, congratulations on winning, and be a good dad.

[Amen Coroner]

He claims to have a fragile mind which tweaks his heart and respiratory rate. He holds it together enough to win a pga tour event. Something doesnt add up... just saying the math doesnt usually work that way. Personally I dont get it. I hope hes ok and all but the pga tour player twitter thing is also something that doesnt add up for me. It smacks self centered lack of attention crying out.

[Simon]

Im am not making any comment re his Twitter views but I can comment on his racing heart issue. I have had this issue since I was a kid and let me tell you its blooody awful. It comes on when you really go for something like trying to really hit a driver as hard as possible. It triggers a massive rush of adrenalin and the heart pounds so fast you can actually see the chest heaving, sweating, dizziness and a struggle to even breath and the heart rate is so high its dangerous.. Its happened to me twice in comps and all I could do was lie down and try as hard as I can to control the breathing, then all of a sudden after a few minutes or even an hour the heart drops back into rhythm with a massive thud feeling in the chest and it stops. Problem is it leaves you looking very pale and drained and no energy for about 2 days. They reckon mine is due to extra electrical activity in the wall of the heart. Not sure if this is what he experienced but it sure sounds like it.

[Ghillie]

What an appalling state of affairs when the president one didn't vote for becomes described as something beneath contempt. Has American political discourse, and intelligence, sunk so low? Has the two party system become anathema to the so-called Republicans (i.e the rabid right, the "Tea Party," the Religious Wrong?). If the soi-disant Republicans prefer a diktat, let the rest of America (ka) be warned.

And God spare us the politics of the PGA Tour. They are moronic.

[The Seer]

Too bad the heart didn't stop ticking completely. These haters we don't need in this world. I am so sick of right wing haters with the IQ of a frog. Of course almost all of the PGA golfers are right wing republicans, but they are not all haters like this creep.

I will revel in his panic attacks.

[digsouth]

Come on Mr. Seer. You are doing the very hate you despise.

[OB]

How about Charlie dropping a nice obscenity with a camera television in his face on 18 tee and the crowd next to him? I know it was the moment but boy did he sound like a dweeb. At least the announcers didn't apologize for it, one of the lamest things in modern announcing.

[elf]

You can disagree with someone's politics, heck you can even think they're a bad person, without resorting to name calling. And you can certainly do it without comparing them to a child molester or attacking fans. And btw since he has never apologized, or in any way acknowledged that he might have crossed a line, I don't think bringing it up is a problem. It does show part of his character. The cursing on 18 didn't bother me though.

oh and panic attacks, not a sign of a weak mind

[Hawkeye]

What digsouth said.

[Murl]

The only thing twitter is good for is being called out by hypocritical douchebags like Geoff Shackelford.

[Press Agent]

Just read the Golfweek Monday thingy and I was surprised to see how many writers were completely out to lunch on the anxiety stuff. A number of them equated it with stress and tried to say the stress of leading the tournament was causing him anxiety, but it's nothing like that at all. They even seemed to miss the point that he had fainted at other times, including when he was on an airplane before. Anxiety has almost nothing to do with external factors and has almost everything to do with what's going on in one's mind. Charlie boy has some issues that he needs to deal with if he ever wants to live without the anxiety. One of the writers in Golfweek was talking about it relative to other 'athletes' but lets get real here, these guys are not athletes and anxiety can and does happen to everyone.

As far as the Twitter posts go, it seems no matter how many times people are told "once it hits the internet, it has basically been published forever," they still don't get it, and we get people questioning it being dragged up again like earlier in these posts. That however is the reality, these morons like Beljan need to think a little harder before they tweet out the ramblings of their weak and UN-informed minds, because once it's tweeted, it's out there for good and I am glad people are reminding everyone what this clown said just a short time ago while they all start to feel sorry for the poor guy with the anxiety issues.

[Press Agent]

@ Murl,
how is Geoff hypocritical? Maybe you are talking about how the mainstream media would never highlight Beljan's passed deeds while getting all misty eyed over his anxiety issues? and it takes people like Geoff to talk the truth.

[Paul]

Wow. Really enjoyed watching this guy win on Sunday. Now I feel like the dbag for liking him. Maybe it's all the hate inside him that is causing his heart issues. Stick to golf Charlie.

[knottypine]

These haters we don't need in this world, says the poster who wished Beljans heart had stopped beating! That was great.

[Brad S]

What Murl said!

[GolfGirl]

Like the Republican party, golf is perceived to have something of an Angry White Man problem. The last thing it needs at this point is to be associated with an embittered, whiny, immature individual like Charlie Beljan.

[vinylBudgie]

Aah, now I see why you guys don't like Charlie B. After watching the guy hit some clutch shots down the stretch, including a superb 20 footer on 18 to make the playoff, I had assumed that golf fans might welcome the arrival on the scene of a new 'player'.

After reading some of the vitriol on here I googled around and see that he dissed your precious liberal messiah. I guess there's no way back from a crime such as that in this echo chamber.

I mean. 'Hate'? Seriously? He expressed some obviously deeply felt, if injudiciously worded political views in the midst of an election campaign. Rightly or wrongly there are many people around who believe that Obama has been and continues to be a disaster for America and the West.. Are such opinions to become illegal in our brave new world? I get the impression that many on this board believe so.

Why not stick to ranting about how far the ball goes? At least that topic is related to golf. But then I also note that Charlie is one of your demonized 'big hitters'.......