Poulter’s lucky break leads back to big time
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA. — Ian Poulter is back among the top 100 in the world. He has gone over $1.25 million for the year. He doesn’t have to worry about keeping his PGA Tour card next year.
Poulter never imagined all this two weeks ago.
He was playing on a major medical extension from a foot injury last year and had 10 tournaments to earn enough money or FedEx Cup points to keep full status. Poulter fell short when he missed the cut in his 10th start at the Texas Open, and he figured he would be stuck asking for exemptions the rest of the year.
That’s when a clerical oversight — discovered by Brian Gay — saved him.
The PGA Tour changed its FedEx Cup points distribution that mainly affected the middle of the leaderboard, but players on medical extensions are supposed to play under the same set of rules as when injury sidelined them. Poulter not only got his card back, but the extra points put him in The Players Championship.
The Englishman took it from there.
He was the only player to seriously challenge Si Woo Kim on the back nine Sunday at the TPC Sawgrass, and his incredible bogey save from the woods on the 18th hole gave him a 1-under 71 and a tie for second with Louis Oosthuizen.
The points make him virtually a lock for the FedEx Cup playoffs this year, and the $940,000 was his second-highest paycheck behind his victory in the Match Play seven years ago.
“It’s been a big week,” Poulter said. “To have two, three weeks ago been in a position where I wasn’t playing The Players and potentially didn’t have a card to play and was looking to write nice letters to Jack (Nicklaus) for Memorial and all of those great tournaments that I’d like to play in, things change pretty quick with good golf, and that’s what I’ve done this week. I’ve played good golf. I think I’ve still got some work to do. The putter is not quite doing what I would like.”
Poulter went 39 consecutive holes without a bogey and he was tied for the lead until Kim made a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 7. Poulter closed within one shot with a birdie on the 11th, but his chances began to slide when he played it safe off the reachable 12th hole. His wedge came up well short, and his long putt from just off the green ran 6 feet by the cup. He missed the par putt, and only had one really good look at birdie the rest of the way.
His best hope was a mistake from Kim, who was bogey-free and won by three.
Even so, Poulter’s outlook sure is different.
“It wasn’t looking like a great summer,” he said, referring to the prospect of trying to get PGA Tour invitations when he typically spends most of his summer in England with his family. “For that all to turn around the way and for me to be sitting here in a slightly different situation, it’s pleasing.”
“I wasn’t nervous at all because I was leading,” he said. “I just focused on the middle of the green.”
He landed safely and twoputted from 45 feet, and then he smashed another drive down the middle of the 18th.
The only drama at the end came from Ian Poulter, who was happy just to be here.
Two weeks ago, Poulter thought he had lost his PGA Tour card until officials realized a clerical oversight that restored his status and even gave him a spot in The Players Championship. He was the only player to seriously challenge Kim until he ran out of holes, and then it was a matter of finishing second.
Poulter shanked his second shot from the right rough on the 18th, and it bounced off hospitality tents, down a cart path and into a palmetto bush. He took a penalty drop, and then hit wedge over the trees and nearly holed it, tapping in for bogey.
He closed with a 71 and tied for second with Louis Oosthuizen, who shot 73.
“It was a big shock to the system to hit one of those nasty shanks when I’ve hit it as good as I have all week,” Poulter said. “But the fourth shot was pretty special — from one of the worst shots I’ve ever hit to one of the very best.”
The bogey on the 18th was only the second for Poulter over the final 46 of the tournament. As tough as the Players Stadium Course played, his best chance was waiting for Kim to make a mistake, just like so many other players. Remarkably, Kim never did.
“As good as he played yesterday, he’s obviously gone out there today and played even better,” Poulter said.
Oosthuizen, who fell out of the lead for good with a fairway bunker shot into the water for double bogey on No. 4, watched it all day playing alongside Kim.
“It just shows you how good a player he is and how cool and calm he is,” Oosthuizen said. “Never once did he look flustered at all.”
Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain hit 8-iron that bounded off the side of a bunker and into the cup for an albatross 2 on the par-5 16th. He followed that with a birdie on the 17th, and then holed a long par putt from just off the 18th green. That gave him a 70 and a tie for fourth with Kyle Stanley, a co-leader after 54 holes who shot 75.
The other co-leader was J.B. Holmes, and it was a horror show for the Kentuckian.
Holmes shot 40 on the front nine and still had hope until bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes. Then he hit too shots into the water on the 17th and make a quintuple-bogey 8, then finished with a double to close with an 84, the worst finish by a 54-hole leader at The Players.
Holmes wasn’t alone. Defending champion Jason Day closed with an 80. Rickie Fowler, who won the year before, closed with a 79.