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Sir Nick Faldo has addressed the furore over his social media dig at Rickie Fowler saying he meant no disrespect.

Earlier this week, and responding to a tweet about Fowler’s struggles to qualify for the Masters, the six-time major champion launched a bizarre and unprovoked broadside at the American.

“Good news is if he misses the Masters he can shoot another six commercials that week!” wrote Faldo.

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Unsurprisingly, the tweet went viral, with many accusing the Englishman of disrespect and taking a cheap shot at the world No.65.

That prompted Faldo to post a video on his Twitter account earlier today to explain what prompted the tweet.

“I want to quickly say my comment about Rickie the other day has obviously gone a little OTT,” he began.

“I want to give you a bit of history. Number one, I’m a Brit. We only roast the ones we like. You know all about the famous roasts. Let me just say I am a Rickie fan. Always have been, always will be. What he does for the game is fantastic and I wish him all the best.

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“Like everybody, we want him to find his game as soon as possible. Five years ago now, he was voted – by the players – as the most overrated player on tour. It motivated him to go and win The PLAYERS [Championship] literally the next week.

“A couple of years later when things had gone quiet, I said to Rickie, ‘Hey, I need to give you a bit of needle, mate, to motivate you.’ And he said to me, ‘Bring it on.’ Okay, it’s years later so hopefully he still remembers that.”

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Faldo, added that his comment was “probably born out of a little bit of jealousy”.

“I would love to have a few more commercials,” he added. “I have one that I’m very proud of… But more importantly, I wish Rickie well. I want him to play great, to get out there, get to the top of the leaderboard and that’ll be fantastic for all of us. So, in the future, I’ll refrain from digging a little too deep.”

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