Six months after slumping to his poorest World Ranking in 17-years, and then soon after losing his PGA Tour card, Ian Poulter says ‘all the ‘moving parts in my life have been simplified’ as the rejuvenated Brit nears breaking back into the game’s elite top-50.
Poulter will contest this week’s British Masters currently ranked No. 55 in the world and in sharp contrast to March when he dropped outside the top-200 in the world and his poorest ranking since a maiden pro season in 2000.
A month later there was the bigger issue for Poulter in staring at losing his prized PGA Tour card.
The 41-year old’s concerns began when side-lined from June to late October last year due to an arthritic joint concern in his right foot.
Ian Poulter still as popular with the fans & here during the 2017 Dell Technologies. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
When Poulter returned, the PGA Tour afforded the Brit a ‘Major Medical Exemption’ status meaning he had a corresponding period to secure his full Tour card for the 2017.
However, when Poulter missed the cut on April 21st in the Texas Open he lost his Tour card by falling short of earning sufficient prize-money to match the player who has finished 115th on the money list at the end of the 2016 season and the cut-off point for automatic 2017 Tour membership.
But exactly a week later, and in one of the most bizarre scenarios in PGA Tour history, Poulter and American Brian Gay received phone calls from the Tour soon after ending their second rounds of the Zurich Classic, and a non-money list counting team event in New Orleans.
Thanks to Gay’s wife, who spotted the error, the Tour had seriously miscalculated both Poulter’s and Gay’s ‘Major Medical’ exemption status and the amount of money they each needed to regain full playing rights.
In short, both Poulter and Gay were immediately afforded full 2017 Tour membership and with the very affable Poulter clearly showing his delight by finishing second the very next week in the Players Championship to even more bizarrely effectively secure his 2018 Tour card in just one event.
“At one stage before New Orleans we were speaking about damage limitation and where could I play and what I was going to do, am I right for invitations and I was reassessing my whole life,” he said.
“So, I first had a very short window to re-evaluate my golfing life and then real quickly from having no playing schedule to realising I had a full playing schedule.
“It was chaotic. It was stressful and it had been a really, bizarre five months and the most bizarre of my career.”
Not only was there that stress but Poulter was getting abuse on social media and also having to deal with increased media scrutiny at thoughts of being without his card.
“My career had been pretty steady along with my World Ranking, along with having highs in my game after Ryder Cup performances but never had I that issue of plummeting down the Rankings to two-hundred and something in the world (In fact, 207th on March 1st, 2017) and not knowing where or if you are going to play golf,” he said.
“It was not good for the mind space, at all and it sent me into a frenzy at times but we are through it and I am okay, and I think we are all good.”
Aside from breaking back into the top-50 on the rankings there also is the question of getting himself back into the four Major and qualifying automatically for a sixth European Ryder Cup team in a year’s time in France.
“All I can do is just tick off those goals along the way but then it is hard to say, ‘right, this is what I have to do’ and it is easier to just say ‘right, c’mon I know what I need to do to get into the top-50 and then let’s re-evaluate everything when I am back inside the top-50,” he said.
“Of course, if you are playing in all the Majors and the WGCs it should be easy to make the Ryder Cup team and if not, it is more difficult.
“So, I am literally still taking it one step at the time and the moment and that goal is to make it into the HSBC Champions in Shanghai later next month and let’s kick-on from there.
“There has been a lot of moving parts to my life this year that has been very tricky to manage and fortunately they have been simplified.”
