Poulter recalls his golden shot
It’s a little over a two-hour drive from Ian Poulter’s home in Orlando to the beach here in Jacksonville and, while making the journey on tuesday, he couldn’t help but look back to a year ago and the shot that saved his career.
As he contemplates a summer filled with exciting possibilities, it’s easy to forget the dire predicament Poulter faced at the 2017 Players Championship, when people were openly wondering whether he was finished at the highest level.
Poulter had certainly answered some of those questions with his fine play to move into contention but, at the 72nd hole, he was staring calamity in the face once more.
A shanked approach with a mid-iron had left his ball in the trees on a bed of pine needles. Every shot spilled from this point on would cost him tens of thousands of dollars, oodles of precious world-ranking points — and now he was facing one fraught with difficulty.
‘No question, it was the hardest period of my career, one where I was trying so hard but sometimes you just can’t see through the trees,’ he reflected.
‘When did I find some clarity of thought? I think it was when that shot from 116 yards landed next to the hole. It was as simple as that, to be honest. I was looking for one really massive week to act as a stepping stone and there you had the turnaround on the strength of one shot.
‘It opened everything up, and got my head back in the right position.’
From a world ranking of 195th at the start of that event, Poulter moved up 100 places on the strength of his runner-up finish. this year, he won his first strokeplay tournament on the PGA tour at the Houston Open to move into the top 25. After this week, he will spend the summer playing the European tour and cementing his place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
‘It’s all about confidence and now I’m just full of it once more,’ he said. ‘It’s a great feeling when the Ryder Cup captain is in your corner and wanting you to play well. Now I want to keep going and earn my place in the team, rather than worry about being a pick.’
In the first round, Poulter will play alongside tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, who could go to world No1 if he became the first Englishman to win this title.
‘It’s just wonderful to have the chance to be world No1 for the first time in my career,’ said the 38-year-old.
‘It’s never been a real goal before because I haven’t been that close, but now I’m looking at the next month up to the Us Open as a real opportunity to get to the summit. It’s an exciting time.’
Rory McIlory believes a welcome change of environment has left him finally ready to win one of the few big titles so far missing from his glittering CV.
His first attempts to win the so-called ‘fifth major’ resulted in three missed cuts, but since then he has finised eighth, sixth, eighth and 12th before a tie for 35th last year.
McIlroy said: ‘It’s funny. I started staying on the beach a few years ago and that’s made the event a lot more enjoyable. I stayed on property at the hotel and felt I couldn’t get away from it. It’s busy and there’s a lot of people so to go and stay on the beach is a nice release.’
With all the world’s top 50 in attendance, it promises to be some week at sawgrass.
the anticipation will be palpable at Carnoustie, too, come July after tiger Woods yesterday confirmed his entry for the 147th Open Championship.
It will be the first time he has contested the game’s oldest major since 2015 due to injury.
Woods has won the Claret Jug three times but never at Carnoustie where he finished seventh in 1999 — after claiming the set-up of the course was unfair — and joint 12th in 2007.