2019 POULTER FINDS HIS RYDER CUP PASSION
Ian thriving as he mixes it with Americans on the leaderboard
ONE of the quainter Masters traditions is the necessity, on arrival, to have a round of golf with a member of Augusta National. It gives the players the opportunity to meet a wide variety of 80-year-old, white, wealthy, Republicans.
Which is nice, because that’s what most of them will be in a few decades anyway.
Ian Poulter played his 18 holes with Lou Holtz, in many ways the stereotypical Augusta member. Holtz is white, 82, an active Republican, a supporter of Donald Trump, a staunch opponent of Colin Kaepernick’s take the knee protest in the NFL and a regular guest on Fox News.
In 2006, he was required to apologise for calling Hitler a ‘great leader’ in a joke about Rich Rodriguez, the college football coach at the University of Michigan. What separates Holtz from many of his fellow members, however, is a background in elite sport.
Holtz was a very successful college football coach, too, and later a colourful analyst of the game. He is famed for his motivational speeches and pithy words of encouragement.
‘No-one has ever drowned in sweat,’ said Holtz. You’ll still find that on the walls of some changing rooms.
And, when they played, Holtz detected in Poulter a player in need of a pep talk. So he delivered one.
He thought Poulter didn’t think he could win in Augusta. Holtz begged to differ. And by the time Poulter left the 13th green yesterday as outright leader six under par, so did a few people.
‘If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.’ That is another one from Holtz and it could have been made for Poulter at Augusta this week.
Poulter did big things at the Masters on Thursday and he went big again yesterday. Not as spectacularly as his round of 68 but enough to remain around the top of a leaderboard populated by the best Americans and the odd European interloper. It has been a wonderful two days for Poulter who this time last year had to win the Houston Open — the last event before Augusta — just to earn the right to be here. He had fallen to 220 in the world rankings three years ago, he now resides at 33. Seeing the way superior players have struggled around this course — Justin Rose, the world No 1, spent much of the day flirting with a missed cut — Poulter’s battle for supremacy at the age of 43 was nothing short of remarkable.
He is another of those players, like Colin Montgomerie, who seems destined to be remembered for his ferocious performances as a team player in the Ryder Cup.
He has won 20 tournaments, but no majors. Going into this tournament, Poulter and Paul Casey were tied as the players who had played most majors, 59, without winning. Casey was nine over par after 18 holes, yet this was Poulter as we see him every other year. Cussed, competitive, brave, defiant.
He dropped a shot on the first when he found a fairway bunker from the tee, but got it back immediately with a birdie at the second. From there, he delivered an immensely consistent run of nine straight pars — a stretch in which he spurned several birdie opportunities and dug deep for several saves.
Had this been a Ryder Cup there would have been a swathe of images of Poulter roaring, fist pumping, in front of an equally boisterous crowd.
But this is the Masters, so Poulter played it straight. His attire has become more conservative with age but in his plain black shirt and grey checked trousers he was close to unrecognisable, given his flamboyant past. His golf wasn’t, though. An understated groan and a muttered ‘ah, my word’ greeted an iron shot into a bunker on the seventh.
His recovery from the sand, however, was magnificent.
He found a bunker on the eighth too, but then got out with such flair he was cursing a misread birdie putt.
As America knows, Poulter at the Ryder Cup never knows when he is beaten and while a strokeplay tournament is rarely that same emotional ride — and certainly not on day two — there were glimpses here of that obstinate resolve.
At the ninth, 10th and 11th, he made testing putts to save par.
He could have given his score back in that isolated stretch and maybe, several years ago, he might have.
Here he clung on, kept his score, kept his hot breath on the necks of the leaders who were now wobbling, bided his time, made his charge.
His tee shot at the short 12th was perfect, sitting down just as Poulter instructed, pin high for
birdie. He drained it. On the 13th, he got too much of it off the tee, but recovered to sink a birdie putt for the outright lead.
Francesco Molinari soon joined him there on six under and Poulter gave one back at the next —missing right up the slope — but the point was made.
Whatever coach Holtz said did the trick. Poulter was playing as if he believed, as if he was at home in this company again.
Maybe the event had a Ryder Cup feel, too, so many Americans in contention. They bring out the best in him, always have.
A few holes behind, Poulter’s compatriot Rose was enduring a torrid afternoon.
Whoever he played with before this tournament began, he certainly looked as if he could do with mentoring.
Every shot brought a discussion, nothing seemed imbued with certainty.
As the cut veered between +3 and +4 so Rose’s participation this weekend swayed with it. He has never missed the cut here, the world No 1, yet only Augusta’s generous rules were keeping him in.
His golf was doing its best to give him two days off.
He even found water on the 11th with another shot lacking confidence.
It was 2002 the last time the top-ranked golfer walked off with a green jacket, but Rose’s record around Augusta argued against negativity. He has finished in the top 10 five times and in three of the last four years.
Yet a quite beautiful tee shot on the equally photogenic 12th was a rarity — evidence of the player Rose can be, rather than the player he looked.
Poulter, meanwhile, looked like the player who coach Holtz saw as he carded a 71. He just needed a little of that 82-year-old whiteguy wisdom.