Poulter Is Headline News

Ian Poulter's Ryder Cup success was the latest echo created by the unabashed Englishman with working-class roots

A picture of confidence, Poulter has made news on the course as well as off in 2008.

By Tim Rosaforte

Photos By Ben Van Hook

October 20, 2008

Back in England after playing in the Kolon-Hana Bank Korea Open and the Ryder Cup, phone pressed to his ear, Ian Poulter was pacing around the barn he converted into a home in Milton Keynes, a town northwest of London, multi-tasking as always. Poulter is the type of person who can never sit still; his mind is alive with creative thoughts, such as the look of his new website or his line of clothes that will be shipped to 18 countries in January. That's the way it always has been for the cheeky boy who grew up selling clothes in a marketplace in the village of Stevenage, not far from where he was taking this call.

The Ryder Cup would be either his breakout moment or a major career setback, and with the heat on him to produce, Poulter evolved from all the previous adjectives used to describe him -- "brash," "cocky," "flashy," "audacious" -- to become a world-class star. After years of trying to make it on one of golf's biggest stages, Poulter finally had. "I'm happy," he says. "The question was asked prior to the Ryder Cup -- when I was being asked some very awkward questions -- what I thought I could bring to the Ryder Cup. My answer was short and sweet. 'Passion, flair and excitement.' "

Poulter could have added "buzz" to the mix, one of his favorite descriptive words. He used it to explain the highs he felt at the British Open in July at Royal Birkdale, where he was tied for the lead after his 16th-hole birdie Sunday, and at Valhalla, where he won four of five matches after dealing with the emotional stress of being one of Nick Faldo's controversial captain's picks. But it was all a part of the landscape for Poulter, who created massive buzz this year on many fronts.

In January he posed nude for the magazine Golf World UK for a story in he which was quoted as saying, "I know I haven't reached my full potential yet. And, when that happens, it will be just me and Tiger." A pink Cobra golf bag may have covered his private parts, but there was no masking the words. After winning at Dubai the same week the magazine published, Woods responded to a question about whether the gap between Nos. 1 and 2 in the world was greater than that between No. 2 and No. 1,000, Woods grinned and said, "I thought Poulter was No. 2 in the world."

Poulter was, indeed, the No. 2 golfer at the British Open, finishing four strokes back of Padraig Harrington. Even then, he stirred up a mini-controversy before the tournament by standing for hours in the same spot on the practice putting green, leaving indentations of his footprints on Royal Birkdale's sacred sod. This drew a rebuke from R&A chief executive Peter Dawson. Like a mischievous student with a strict headmaster, Poulter recalls the conversation:
Dawson: "The putting green."
Poulter: "Yes."
Dawson: "Two large footprints, indentations in the putting surface."
Poulter: "Yes."
Dawson: "I'd quite like it if you didn't do that again. If everybody did that, we'd have no putting green left."
Poulter: "I was engrossed in my work. But no matter what I should have done, it was a putt I wanted to keep working on. I'm sorry."

Poulter justified Faldo's faith in him by winning four matches at Valhalla.

So sorry that coming down the back nine Sunday, Poulter turned to caddie Terry Mundy and said that if he won, he would return to the practice green, cut out his footprints and either transfer them to his garden or concrete them as a trophy.

Six weeks later Poulter angered many in the U.K. media by skipping the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, the final qualifying event for Europe's Ryder Cup team, in order to play the Deutsche Bank Championship, his 15th PGA Tour event of the year. Poulter explained he wanted to secure his playing privileges in the U.S. for 2009 and didn't want to have to return to do that after the Ryder Cup. When Faldo eventually added him to the team instead of fan favorites (and Cup vets) Darren Clarke or Colin Montgomerie, it created still more controversy.

But Poulter responded. Despite Europe's defeat, he had the best record of all 24 players in the matches, closing with a 3-and-2 victory over Steve Stricker in singles. "Big moment," Poulter says of the week in Kentucky. "I'm just so pleased to come away with that record. It was a relief to play like I played, to show everybody and tell everybody. One of the papers said, 'All mouth and trousers.' [I just wanted] to make people think twice about those comments. I took a lot of that personally in the weeks leading up to the Ryder Cup. I decided to turn my phone off and to work hard on my game. To perform like I did was awesome."