Poulter Breaks Through on American Soil
Many of us laughed when Ian Poulter -- a player best known for flirting with the farthest frontiers of golf fashion -- asserted that he could challenge Tiger Woods for golf’s top spot. Now, it’s not quite so funny.
The flashy kid with the faux-hawk always had truly formidable talent, and he finally delivered on his considerable promise on American soil in capturing the WGC Accenture Match Play at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Ariz. Poulter led fellow Englishman Paul Casey for the final 28 holes of their final-round match, closing out a 4 and 2 victory with a par on the 34th hole in the year’s first WGC event.
The win was further proof that golf is as much about confidence as it is about skill. Poulter cited his prodigious self-belief as being a critical factor in the outcome.
“I just felt that if I could deliver what I believed I could, then I could put myself in a good situation,” he said. “I’ve certainly done that over the last 18 months. And I’ve certainly been able to deliver on that today.
“It’s so nice to see myself at No. 5 and get higher and higher up the World Rankings and hopefully can keep going in that same direction.”
How dominant was Poulter this week? He required only 114 holes to win the title, barely falling short of Tiger Woods’ record of 112 set in 2003. After squeaking past Justin Leonard in 19 holes in his opening match, Poulter was rarely challenged, calling his quarterfinal 1-up win over Thongchai Jaidee the “toughest” of the tournament. Even sweeter was being able to call himself “winner” in America.
“Five or six years of hard work, coming over to change my residency, to be living in America, to finally win over here just means -- it means everything,” Poulter said. “I’ve moved my family across. And it’s just so pleasing to be able to finally say now I’m a winner on the PGA Tour.”
The entire weekend was essentially a short game clinic from Poulter, who’s always had a knack for getting the ball in the hole but showed an especially deft touch around the greens this weekend.
“I would say my short game certainly this week has been as good as it’s ever been,” he said. “The last 12 months it’s been up there with the best of them. I put a new lob wedge in the bag this week, which has worked very, very well. And it’s a change because of the new grooves. The way the ball was coming off the old lob wedge, it was coming off too low. So I added more bounce to therefore pop the ball up in the air a little bit more and it was an extra bit of confidence that I had, you know, coming into this week.”
“I knew there were some runoffs this week, I knew there was some big undulation around the greens and I needed that little help when I did short side myself. And it certainly paid off to put a new lob wedge in there.”
The fact that the finals consisted of two Englishmen was especially significant given that this is a Ryder Cup year. Poulter surges to No. 5 in the world, joining countrymen Lee Westwood (No. 4) and Casey (No. 6) to give England and the European Ryder Cup team a formidable triumvirate.
Poulter found the final-round matchup to be a mixed blessing.
“You’ve only got to beat one player,” he said. “That player happened to be a fellow Ryder Cup partner and fellow Englishman and a good friend. So in some ways that’s sort of very difficult because you can find yourself getting sidetracked and laughing and joking, which we were.
“But I think both of us were concentrating enough to put that aside and realize that there’s a big tournament up for stake this week and to go out there and work hard to try to win.”
Mission accomplished. Consider it the first shot across the Americans’ bow in the coming Ryder Cup showdown.
In fact, the complete absence of Americans from the final four -- Poulter crushed Sergio Garcia 7 and 6 in the semis, while Casey outlasted Camilo Villegas in 24 holes -- has to be the stuff of nightmares for American Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin. The Cup, after all, is contested under a match play format.
Meanwhile
Cameron Beckman became quite possibly the most unsung three-time winner in PGA Tour history. While the elite were in the Arizona desert, Beckman captured the Mayakoba Golf Classic, firing a final-round 67 to overtake third-round leader Joe Durant.
Erasing a three-shot deficit was the easy part. Closing out his round? That’s a different matter.
“I’m cruising along playing, and all of a sudden I know I’m tied for the lead,” he said. “That makes you nervous. Now you know you got a chance to win and you really got to tighten up and concentrate.
“You know, a lot of things go through your mind. Winning out here is tough. There’s really no easy way do it. I’ve done it a couple different ways now, but it’s a great feeling.”
Tiger Who?
Neither of this weekend’s winners was inclined to talk about the dominant story in golf, preferring to focus on their own accomplishments.
Here’s Poulter’s postround exchange on the matter:
Q. Does the Tiger Woods drama take away or diminish this championship to you in any way, just the media attention?
Ian Poulter: Next question.
Over to you, Cameron Beckman.
“No comment.”
Alrighty then.
