In sport, affection is one of the rewards of endurance. Stick around long enough, and most everyone comes to like you in the end. Even if you are Ian Poulter. He may be Marmite online, but there is no player more popular with the crowd at Birkdale this week, not even Rory McIlroy. After the year Poulter’s had, he has earned every last little bit of their support.
This is the first major Poulter has played in since last year’s Masters and the first he has contended since the Masters before that. In the past 12 months, he has struggled so hard that he nearly lost his PGA Tour card, has had surgery to fix a severe foot injury, had to close down his clothing company and make it through a qualifying tournament just to play here.
So no wonder everyone was rooting for him. It helps that he finished second here in 2008, too, his best finish in a major. He started the day tied for third, three under par and three shots off Jordan Spieth’s lead.
After everything Poulter’s been through lately, that was an achievement in itself. It was, he said, “a massive bonus for me to be in this position” since he has not “played a major for a little while”.
Only, the closer he got to challenging for the Claret Jug, the further it slipped away. Poulter made it to four under coming into the back nine, after back-to-back birdies at the 9th and 10th. Then he dropped three shots in three holes. He finished one over par for the round, two under for the tournament, tied in 11th place.
The crowd were with him all the way regardless. “C’mon Poults!” “Go on Ian!” “Show them how it’s done!” Poulter tipped his cap in thanks every time and flashed them the odd thumbs up. He was playing with Brooks Koepka.
They dropped shots at the 1st in very different fashion. While Koepka zig-zagged from one patch of rough to another and missed a five-foot putt for par after chipping on, Poulter’s tee-shot found the middle of the fairway, and his approach found the heart of the green. But he three-putted. It was Poulter’s third bogey of the week, but it felt like a bad omen so early in the round.
Koepka played his own part in Poulter’s comeback. The two of them were paired together at the St Jude Classic in Memphis in June. Poulter had a lousy time of it on the greens whereas Koepka made pretty much every difficult putt he faced.
When Koepka won the US Open at Erin Hills the very next week, Poulter decided that he must be doing something right. So he decided to copy his grip, with the index finger pointing down the putter’s shaft. It was the first major change he had made to his putting grip since he was a child. It is not something you do lightly after 25 years playing the game.
The change worked well for him the first time he used it at Woburn, where he made six birdies, and it has served him in the first two rounds here, but his touch left him on Saturday. He was playing soundly enough from tee to green, but just was not making the putts that mattered.
Koepka, on the other hand, holed one from 20ft on the 3rd and another from eight feet on the 4th as he made three birdies in a row. Poulter picked up his first birdie on the 5th, where he drove the green then lagged a long putt across from one side to the other to leave a tap-in.
That put him back level for the round, but on a day when the greens were soft, the wind calm and the sun warm playing par golf was not going to cut it.
Poulter knew it too. You can ignore the scoreboards, but you can’t block out the roars. The frequent cries of “Spieth!” and “Kooch!” told him everything about what was going on behind.
At the 6th Poulter splashed out of a green-side bunker to a couple of inches to save par. It felt like it might be the catalyst he needed. He scored those two birdies soon after, each made with a sweet second shot to the green, the first to three feet, the second to eight. At four under he was in fine shape to make a run on Spieth’s lead down the back nine. Then it all came apart.
Poulter hooked his tee-shot left on the 12th and had to hack his way out of the rough. He missed a six-foot putt for par on the 13th and another from 10 feet on the 14th.
After that, the shot he picked up at the 15th was too little, too late. Nine shots back from Spieth, he finished the day out of contention. All that affection will be little consolation.
“There were too many stupid mistakes‚” he said. “I made five bogeys today. It’s not good enough. Simple as that.”
