QUEASY RYDER
Poulter admits on a new Netflix documentary that he’ll be gutted if his chance to captain Europe is taken away for joining rebel tour
IAN POULTER has said it would be “devastating” to miss out on the Ryder Cup captaincy for joining LIV Golf.
The Team Europe legend will be among LIV stars who will learn if they can keep playing on the DP World Tour at an arbitration hearing starting in London today.
Before he joined the Saudi-backed breakaway league Poulter, dubbed the Postman for delivering Ryder Cup points, had been lined up to captain Europe in New York in 2025.
The 47-year-old has taken a starring role in a new eight-part Netflix series called Full Swing that gives behind-the-scenes access to top-level golf. And speaking before he signed for the rebel tour last year, Poulter said: “We just don’t know how it would compromise any possibility of playing or captaining the Ryder Cup side. It is a difficult decision, a decision with so many uncertainties.”
The Florida-based star also gave an insight into his motivation for accepting the LIV money despite earning more than $28million on the PGA Tour.
“Growing up in Stevenage, we as a family never had luxury items,” said the father of four. “It gave me the hunger to succeed at an early age.
“My whole life is about trying to work hard and provide. The fact of there being guaranteed money at play is obviously an attraction.
People ask, ‘Don’t you have enough already?’ But I treat my golf as a job and I want to maximise my potential over the coming years. I’m not getting any younger.
“I love the Ryder Cup. And if one day I get the opportunity to be Ryder Cup captain I would absolutely love it.
“It would be devastating if it were to be taken away.”
The episode Money or Legacy shows Poulter , who has lost just six of the 22 Ryder Cup matches he has played, shouting “f***” and throwing practice equipment in frustration after losing to Matt Fitzpatrick at the World Match Play and missing out on the Masters.
Full Swing, golf ’s answer to Formula One series Drive To Survive, shows Poulter at the first LIV event in June refusing to answer my question about whether he would play anywhere if the money was right.
LIV players were fined £100,000 and suspended for two weeks for teeing up on the Saudi-backed tour last year because they had not been given permission to play. A temporary injunction last July has allowed LIV players to continue to compete on the DP Tour. ■■Netflix Full Swing is available from February 15.