Watching America’s win from a buggy two years ago was more agonising for Ian Poulter than the arthritic toe that put him out of action. Golf’s transatlantic duel without ‘Poults’ is like Paris without love, but ‘Mr Ryder Cup’ is back as a tactician as well as a wildcard.
Even at 42, Poulter is an automatic pick for a Ryder Cup captain – and he returns with a vice-captain’s sense of what went wrong last time. A caged tiger at Hazeltine, Minnesota, in 2016, Poulter watched a run of three European victories broken by Davis Love’s Americans, who won 17-11. In his sixth appearance, Poulter brings a sharper tactical awareness to go with his usual role as Europe’s Head of Fist-Pumping.
“To think back to a couple of years ago, being 200 in the world, and looking at the Ryder Cup from afar, it was pretty motivating to me to get my game back in shape, to play with passion, to reignite the fire, as it were, to try and make this Ryder Cup team,” Poulter says.
“We definitely came up against an extremely strong American team two years ago, but when you look at it on paper and when you look at the fine lines of how Ryder Cups are won and lost, there was a sequence of plays on the Saturday which could have very easily turned in Europe’s favour. When you look back at 2012 [the ‘Miracle of Medinah’], the way we closed out the finishing hole meant we kept momentum, and that’s something that didn’t quite happen two years ago.
“I don’t think we need to do anything different. I think what we need to do is have a little level of focus over those closing couple of holes, which make the difference.”
Behind the peacock-ery and the “cockiness” Thomas Bjorn referred to at the captain’s pick announcement at Sky TV, Poulter performs a statesman’s role. Bjorn says: “He goes into that team room and becomes another person, putting his arm round the younger players. There is also the serious Ian Poulter who knows what it takes to win the Ryder Cup.”
Wild at heart, when the weekend hots up, the wildcard Poulter has become the public face of an event that has transcended its ceremonial origins to become a melodrama factory. The USA’s tally of 31 major championship wins eclipses the European haul of eight. Poulter is outside that elite, but is defined by golf’s greatest match play tournament, where he has lost only four of his 18 matches and has never been beaten in singles play.
Colin Montgomerie, who was similarly invincible one-on-one, calls Poulter “our Messi,” which is stretching it, talent-wise, but less so if outcomes are the measure. Poulter of course plays the rabble-rousing part enthusiastically. But his fighting qualities are not solely emotional in nature. His win at this year’s Houston Open, which secured his place in the Masters field, featured a mighty 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th to earn him a play-off with Beau Hossler, who was shattered by Poulter’s charge.
“When he won in Houston, I thought he was on track to become part of this team,” Bjorn says. “There’s a thing about Ian when he gets confident and gets believing. I met him in the parking lot at Augusta, and that’s where he kind of went: ‘Okay, I’m going to make this Ryder Cup team, and I’m going to be there and I’m going to do everything I can.
“He normally hits that European badge hard. He’s a man for the occasion. He really is just a special person that week. With both him and Sergio [Garcia] sometimes you feel like they should have been footballers because they like team sport so much, and that’s what they bring to a Ryder Cup team. Winning golf tournaments is important, but the frame of mind and what you want to achieve and how you want to go into a Ryder Cup is really important, and [Poulter] does it probably better than anybody else.”
Poulter knows his lines. “My passion for the Ryder Cup burns pretty deep,” he says. And it will need to, with America’s side packed with young major winners. “Yeah if you look on paper, obviously the American team is extremely strong,” he says. “I think when you look at who they are individually, they are very strong. We have a lot of experience on the team. We have five rookies and we’re more than motivated to get our hands back on that gold trophy.”
Also stepping back down from a vice-captain’s cart is Tiger Woods, Poulter’s old sparring partner, whose rousing performance in this year’s Open prompted Poulter to say: “I can’t say I’ve ever been so excited for Tiger Woods.” In 2008, Poulter said: “The trouble is I don’t rate anyone else. Don’t get me wrong, I really respect every professional golfer but I know I haven’t played to my full potential and when that happens, it will be just me and Tiger.” He has made light of that remark many times in the 10 years since.
One is an icon of strokeplay, the other a match-play maestro. Even with 84 years on the clock between them, you pray they get drawn together in Paris.
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