Poults can Ryde to rescue
Brit’s return to form is great news for Bjorn
WINNERS never quit and quitters never win.
Class Ian Poulter in that first bracket of NFL legend Vince Lombardi’s motivational quote.
The European Ryder Cup hero might not be holding the Players Championship trophy today after a mature performance by South Korean kid Si Woo Kim closed out victory by three shots.
But Poulter can be proud of his runner-up finish considering that three weeks before he had just lost his PGA Tour card.
It’s hardly a rags-to-riches fairytale comeback – the guy has a fleet of six Ferraris in the garage of his Florida mansion after all. But there is a genuinely heartwarming sporting story within Poulter’s golfing resurrection.
It’s a tale of pride, of dogged determination, of desire and a bloody-minded refusal to give up when the chips are down.
There are many more naturally talented players on tour. Purer ball-strikers, better putters, straighter shooters off the tee.
But Poulter’s strength – his passion – is priceless and it has wrung every ounce of performance from a level of ability that was more hard-earned than Godgiven. And that passion could prolong his time at the top for a lot longer than many of his more gifted peers.
It would have been easy for the 41-year-old to react to losing his PGA Tour card last month with a shrug and a philosophical conclusion that he has had a good run – not to mention an even better living – at the top.
But Poulter has never been one to rest on his laurels. Had he been it’s unlikely he’d have ever progressed beyond dusting clubs in the pro shop of Leighton Buzzard Golf Club where he served his apprenticeship as an assistant pro almost 20 years ago.
With 14 main tour wins and five Ryder Cups on his CV the Englishman already has a good career and more money than he’ll ever need. But the good sportsman is always hungry for more.
So it must have stung his pride to lose his card. The mitigating circumstances of his loss of form being caused largely by a lengthy injury lay-off that wiped out most of last season would have been no consolation.
It smelled more than a bit iffy when the PGA Tour suddenly “recalculated” his FedEx Cup points tally based on a different formula and conveniently concluded he had done enough to keep his card until the end of the season. Should we be surprised they would shoogle their goalposts to accommodate a high-profile, marketable player?
Just ask European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley who last year ripped up the rulebook to grant membership to US Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed.
But the good thing from Poulter’s performance at Sawgrass is he has wasted no time in justifying the PGA Tour’s show of faith in him by coming good so quickly. With a cheque for almost $1million in the bank Poulter will have no more fears about his playing status for the foreseeable future.
And with that pressure eased hopefully now his drive towards the next challenge will lead him back to the stage he loves most in 16 months’ time.
At the last Ryder Cup injury changed his role from on-course talisman to buggy-driving cheerleader as one of Darren Clarke’s vice-captains.
Come next year skipper Thomas Bjorn will want to see him back where he belongs in the thick of the action. Last week’s comeback from the brink is the clearest sign yet that Poulter still wants it too.