Murray apologises for questioning Champions Tour relevance

Murray's mea culpa on Tuesday came less than two days after he criticised the senior circuit on Twitter following the final round of the Champions Tour season.

The senior season ended with questions over its ranking system when Bernhard Langer was beaten for the season-long Charles Schwab Cup by Kevin Sutherland, even though the German dominated 2017 with seven victories, including three majors.

Langer won nearly twice as much prize money as Sutherland, but a points system modelled on the PGA Tour FedExCup allowed the American to claim the Charles Schwab Cup ranking.

Sutherland's victory on Sunday was his first since the 2002 World Golf Championships Match Play.

"Does anyone really care is the real question... These guys were relevant 10-plus years ago," Murray tweeted, according to Golf.com, before adding that current 40-somethings Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk would never play the senior tour.

Murray subsequently deleted the tweets after coming under fire from the likes of dual major champions Curtis Strange and John Daly.

"Respect those who paved the way," tweeted Strange.

"It's sad," Daly added in a tweet.

Murray backtracked on his stance in a subsequent tweet.

"I want to apologize to the tour and the guys on the Champions Tour. I have nothing but respect for the guys that paved my way to play this game. I'm sorry to everyone I disrespected and I take full responsibility for my actions."

Murray's latest dip into hot water comes less than two weeks after he returned to Twitter following a six-month hiatus that followed previous comments that riled his peers.

The 24-year-old posted his first PGA Tour victory at the Barbasol Championship in July. (Reporting by Andrew Both in Tokyo; Editing by John O'Brien)