Ian Poulter

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Ian Poulter
Personal Information
Birth 10 January 1976 (1976-01-10) (age 32)
Hitchin, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.82 m)
Weight 189 lb (87 kg)
Nationality Flag of England England
Residence Milton Keynes, England
Career
Turned Pro 1995
Tours PGA Tour (joined 2005)
European Tour (joined 2000)
Professional wins 9 (European Tour: 7, Challenge Tour: 1, Japan Golf Tour: 1)
Best Results in Major Championships
Masters T13: 2007
U.S. Open T12: 2006
British Open T11: 2005
PGA Championship T9: 2006
Awards
Sir Henry Cotton
Rookie of the Year		 2000

Ian James Poulter (born 10 January 1976) is an English golfer who is a member of the world's top two professional golf tours, the U.S. based PGA Tour and the European Tour.

Contents

[edit] Career

Born in Hitchin, Poulter's first professional win was the Open de Côte d'Ivoire on the European Tour's second tier Challenge Tour in 1999, and he won promotion to the European Tour itself via the Qualifying School later that year. In his first season he claimed the Italian Open title and was the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 2000. Further wins followed in each of the next four seasons, most prestigiously the season ending "tour championship" the Volvo Masters in 2004. He was in the top ten on the Order of Merit in 2003, 2004 and 2006.

After narrowly missing a place in the 2001 European Ryder Cup team, Poulter was a member of the victorious squad in 2004, where he officially scored the winning points for his team. This entitled him to take up membership of the PGA Tour in 2005, and he divided his time between the two tours in since then. He has featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings. He is well known for his often radical dress sense, including trousers featuring the famous Claret Jug, worn at both the 2005 and 2006 Open Championships. Commentating for the BBC, Seve Ballesteros cruelly jibed that this was "the closest [Poulter] would ever get to it".

Poulter has been hotly tipped as one of the brightest up and coming stars of the PGA European Tour since his first appearance in 2000. However with several appearances on the more prominent U.S. PGA Tour he has not fulfilled his potential on the major stage and despite a string of good finishes in some of the worlds top events he has yet to break his duck by claiming any of the worlds top titles. Nevertheless Poulter is still highly regarded as one of the best golfers in Europe.

Poulter appeared in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006, a videogame released by EA Sports, as a fellow professional along with a host of other leading players in the world such as Luke Donald, Annika Sörenstam and Natalie Gulbis.

Outside of the computer industry Poulter is now sponsored by Cobra after he left TaylorMADE, for the start of the 2006 season. He also has his own clothing line due for release in 2007.

Poulter is well known for being an avid fan of the London-based football club Arsenal FC. He has on several occasions appeared with the team's crest on his shoes, and he even controversially wore the team's hat during an event (immediately after the event the rule was changed to stop future players wearing football jerseys). He is an avid car collector and along with his new purchase of the Ford GT40, he has owned a Ferrari and a Nissan skyline along with an Aston Martin DB9.

At the Mercedes-Benz Championship in September of 2007, Poulter smashed a tee marker in a show of frustration and was fined. Also, in 2006 Poulter paid a £5,000 fine after verbally abusing a marshal at the Irish Open.

At the 2008 Masters Tournament, Poulter made a hole-in-one at the 16th hole at Augusta National in the first round.

[edit] Media controversy

In the March issue of Golf World (UK) Poulter was quoted saying "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."[1] At the 2008 Dubai golf tournament, Poulter said that he was misquoted, and that he aspired to be ranked #2.

[edit] Professional wins (9)

[edit] European Tour wins (7)

[edit] Challenge Tour wins (1)

  • 1999 Open de Côte d'Ivoire

[edit] Japan Golf Tour wins (1)

[edit] Results in major championships

Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP T31 T33 DNP T13 T25
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP CUT T57 T12 T36
The Open Championship T64 DNP T50 T46 T25 T11 CUT T27
PGA Championship DNP CUT DNP T61 T37 T47 T9 T23

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] Team appearances

[edit] References

  1. ^ Poulter wants to close book on controversy

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
v • d • e
Sir Henry Cotton Rookies of the Year
1960 Tommy Goodwin • 1961 Alex Caygill • 1962 No Award • 1963 Tony Jacklin • 1964 No Award • 1965 No Award • 1966 Robin Liddle • 1967 No Award • 1968 Bernard Gallacher • 1969 Peter Oosterhuis • 1970 Stuart Brown • 1971 David Llewellyn • 1972 Sam Torrance • 1973 Pip Elson • 1974 Carl Mason • 1975 No Award • 1976 Mark James • 1977 Nick Faldo • 1978 Sandy Lyle • 1979 Mike Miller • 1980 Paul Hoad • 1981 Jeremy Bennett • 1982 Gordon Brand, Jnr • 1983 Grant Turner • 1984 Philip Parkin • 1985 Paul Thomas • 1986 José María Olazábal • 1987 Peter Baker • 1988 Colin Montgomerie • 1989 Paul Broadhurst • 1990 Russell Claydon • 1991 Per-Ulrik Johansson • 1992 Jim Payne • 1993 Gary Orr • 1994 Jonathan Lomas • 1995 Jarmo Sandelin • 1996 Thomas Bjørn • 1997 Scott Henderson • 1998 Olivier Edmond • 1999 Sergio García • 2000 Ian Poulter • 2001 Paul Casey • 2002 Nick Dougherty • 2003 Peter Lawrie • 2004 Scott Drummond • 2005 Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño • 2006 Marc Warren • 2007 Martin Kaymer
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2004 European Ryder Cup Squad