IAn poulter

2017 THE PLAYERS ChAmpionship, FINAL ROUND TPC SAWGRASS, 72ND HOLE

Ian Poulter wasn’t supposed to be in the field at the 2017 Players Championship, let alone contending for the title.

The Englishman had missed out on the FedExCup points required to earn his PGA Tour card after starting the season on a medical exemption and only in the field thanks to Brian Gay, who found himself in the same situation and uncovered a clerical error.

Standing in the 72nd fairway attempting to put pressure on runaway leader Si Woo Kim, Poulter hit a shank – a shot he has struggled with throughout his career – into the trees and pine straw right of the fairway.

“Oh, it was a full one. Yeah, it was a lovely one. It was a shank,” Poulter said of his second on the 18th hole on Sunday.

The ball found a bush, and despite channelling Seve Ballesteros for a moment as he evaluated the lie and thought about attempting something miraculous, Poulter eventually took an unplayable lie and a penalty drop to be lying three.

After his caddie stepped out a yardage, the Englishman struck a magnificent wedge that nearly found the bottom of the cup for a par four, settling for a tap in bogey and a tie for 2nd.

“I was kind of lucky in a way, there was a gap through the trees, albeit I had to kind of get the ball up really quickly,” he said.

“I’ve hit it, it’s missed the branch, and then obviously everyone kind of runs in front and then you don’t really know ... it wasn’t until I got through the crowd of people that I saw it was stone dead.

“It was a big shock to the system to hit one of those nasty shanks when I’ve hit it as good as I have all week, but the fourth shot was pretty special, from one of the worst shots I’ve ever hit to one of the very best.”