Graeme McDowell announces NFT sale, gets slammed

At some point, Graeme McDowell is going to realise it’s better to tweet nothing at all.

Not content with the barrage of hate he received for suggesting the Open should feature a shotgun start, the former US Open champion is at it again.

Just days after that particular furore died down, the former Ryder Cup star faced a backlash after announcing a sale of non-fungible tokens.

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McDowell, who made the switch to LIV Golf earlier this year, has teamed up with Angry Apes Country Club, which builds golf-themed NFTs which are then sold.

“We worked hard to build a fantastic NFT with a brilliant roadmap and incentive program,” he wrote.

Needless to say, the world of social media was not impressed with his latest antics.

McDowell was accused of “shilling for scams” – a reference to criticism of NFTs which raise concerns about plagiarism and fraud.

He was also accused of “encouraging people to take high-risk gambles”.

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NFTs are digital files which are bought and sold. Their ownership is stored using blockchain technology, allowing them to be traded.

However, the movement has faced heavy criticism over a lack of security or regulation, comparisons with pyramid or Ponzi schemes and “rug-pull” scams, where developers deliberately increase the value of the product then sell their tokens en masse to lock in profits while wrecking its value.