Poulter has the nerve to win Cup place

13 April 2012

If confidence and the faintest trace of arrogance are vital components in the make-up of a successful Ryder Cup player, then Ian Poulter would appear to be well equipped to take on the best that the United States has to offer at The Belfry next month.

Poulter is one of Britain's most exciting golfing prospects and he gives the impression that he would not feel embarrassed if you told him so to a face framed by carefully groomed sideburns that come to distinctive points halfway down his cheeks.

His rapid rise has been little short of astonishing.

Two years ago Poulter was playing Challenge golf, the European Tour's proving ground for ambitious young men aspiring to a place among the elite.

Today, with the Sir Henry Cotton rookie of the year award and two order of merit tournament titles under his belt, he was teeing off among a star-studded field of 39 players in the £3.6 million NEC Invitational World Championship event here at the Firestone Country Club.

The defending champion is US Masters title-holder Tiger Woods. The season's other three major winners, Retief Goosen, David Duval and David Toms, are competing and Poulter's playing partner in the first round is Scott Verplank, one of the two wild card selections in the United States Ryder Cup team named by captain Curtis Strange on Monday.

The 25-year-old from Luton said: "This is as good as it gets, playing with the best players in the world."

Poulter dismissed the very notion of feeling nervous in illustrious company that includes 24 of the world's top 27 ranked players. "This is where I've always wanted to be and I just don't get overwrought by the other players," he said.

"I have respect for their game and their ability and what they have achieved. But if you want to be here in the future you cannot afford to get too nervous or afraid of anyone."

For all his bravado on the golf course Poulter admitted to having his nerves tested behind closed doors in his hotel room on Sunday.

That is because entry to the Invitational was open to the top 12 players in the European Ryder Cup points table at the conclusion of the US PGA Championship and, having missed the cut, he was only too aware that Andrew Coltart was on target to pip him for 12th place.

In order to overtake Poulter, the Scot could have afforded to play the last five holes of the final round in Atlanta in one over par. Instead, he played them in threeover and was thus ineligible for a tournament in which even the golfer who finishes last goes home with £17,000.

Poulter knows, however, that only the top 10 in the European Ryder Cup list at the conclusion of next week's BMW International in Munich will gain automatic selection to the side to be led by Sam Torrance, and that Torrance's two wild card picks are almost certainly reserved for Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik.

That means he has to win enough money this week and in Germany to push either Paul McGinley, Bernhard Langer or Phillip Price - at present eighth, ninth and 10th in the table - out of the side.

But Poulter draws motivation from his first taste of the Ryder Cup in 1993 when he was an eager spectator pitching up at The Belfry in a tent.

He said: "I remember the atmosphere and the pure adrenalin generated by the excitement of it all. If I were to play this time it would be the most exciting challenge yet."

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