Firestarter Poulter flexes his muscles
EUROPE’S FOLK HERO ROLLS BACK YEARS
AT 3-1 DOWN after the opening session there was something reassuring about the sight of Ian Poulter on the first tee after lunch.
‘ We love you Ian!’ someone shouted as the Ryder Cup’s folk hero flexed himself before delivering his opening salvo, which ended up overshooting the runway to finish up in a watery grave.
The massed galleries need not have worried, for within a few hours Poulter had not only served to revive his partner Rory McIlroy’s spirits but also delivered his 14th point in this competition.
McIlroy may well have been pleased to see him too after a torrid morning playing alongside the contrastingly green Thorbjorn Olesen.
Later, following a 4&2 victory, Poulter insisted he was having none of that. ‘He would have been frustrated enough with the morning loss but I didn’t need to gee him up at all,’ he said. ‘Rory is Rory. He needed slowing down if anything, I could barely keep up with his little legs.’
Yet, at 42, Poulter remains Europe’s firestarter, even if on this occasion he and McIlroy were aided by the ineptitude of the unfathomable pairing of Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson.
He had begun his day as the first man on to the open tee to spectate, revving up the crowd, and ended it on the 16th tee shaking the hand of Watson, who had worn a look of amused bafflement for much of the afternoon.
How could Jim Furyk and his brains trust have expected a hugely different outcome from this pairing?
Between them Watson and Simpson have not won a foursomes match in three tries at this event. Mercurial southpaw Watson’s overall record in this environment is three wins and nine losses.
Simpson has a better ratio of points but hotfooted it here from Atlanta having played for seven of the last eight weeks and, like several of his compatriots, he may well be overcooked.
It looked that way against a pair who have lost only once each in this format. The Anglo-Northern Irish duo only needed to steer the ball round the course adequately well to make their contribution to an afternoon beatdown of historic proportions.
Poulter and McIlroy mustered only two birdies between them but that was enough in a match when making par often sufficed. By the time they reached the turn they had turned two down into two up and Poulter’s trip into the lake was long behind them — not that the Englishman had allowed himself to dwell on it.
He may not have the same raw talent as some others but, like many of the best competitors in any sport, he can summon an ability to quickly put a setback behind him and concentrate on the next task. This had been amply demonstrated on the second hole, when he dug his partner’s ball out of the bunker to lay it beside the pin.
Hands on hips, he turned round to the crowd with a swagger and a stare, as if to remind them this is what he does in the Ryder Cup, in case they had forgotten with him having not played two years ago at Hazeltine due to injury.
The Americans briefly threatened to come back into it when they reduced the deficit to a single hole on the 11th with a birdie.
Simpson moved to celebrate with a high five, only for Watson to pull his hand back at the last second as a jolly jape. When they had the chance to exert pressure on the next hole the left-hander fluffed his approach on to a bank and only a par was needed to increase the Europeans’ lead.
A rare glimpse of McIlroy genius was enough to effectively seal the match on the 13th. He rescued Poulter’s drive off a bank from a horrible angle to land it 25 feet from the pin, with his partner rolling in the putt.
For his next trick Poulter will be partnering Jon Rahm this morning, and given the Spaniard’s feisty demeanour and fondness for crowd interaction he will not be needing to gee him up either.