If Ian Poulter is to successfully end a conversation about second-place finishes in Dubai on Sunday, he may well have Greg Norman to thank.
Norman, a former world No1 and one of the finest players of his generation, took to Twitter to inform Poulter he had witnessed an “easy fix” putting flaw when watching last weekend’s Turkish Airlines Open. Poulter finished runner-up to Brooks Koepka, with the Englishman an angry figure after a third-round 75 and missed putt on the 72nd green which cost him a playoff place.
“I was very disappointed but I am over it,” said Poulter of what occurred in Turkey.
Unsurprisingly, the Englishman took the opportunity to have a discussion with Norman but also has enough belief in recent progress to weigh the Australian’s words against what has otherwise been serving him well. “I spoke to Greg last night,” said Poulter on Wednesday, “I know him really well. It was really nice of him to reach out. He noticed a couple of things, he had some observations.
“I would like to review the coverage, just to see if his observations are my observations as well. I have worked hard on my putting the last couple of weeks and I feel like I have made good inroads.
“Obviously a couple of putts have slipped past but I’d like to try and review them myself, as well as obviously having a great opinion from Greg. I respect his opinion. I will take on board what he said.
“It would be very easy just to tell you exactly what he said but I am not going to do that,” Poulter added. “Because is it going to work, isn’t it going to work?
“I’ve been working really hard to try and hole putts and it has started to happen the last couple of weeks. So I’m right on a fine line right now. It would be unfair to say what we discussed on the telephone and then, all of a sudden, see what happens this week. I will let you know on Sunday night.”
A year ago, Poulter had a DP World Tour Championship mission of chasing down Henrik Stenson in his quest to claim the European Tour’s Race to Dubai order of merit title. Poulter was to finish second, to Stenson, at the Earth Course.
Poulter begins this year’s European Tour finale at 13th in the order of merit, which has already been claimed by Rory McIlroy. That has not blunted his ambition, though.
“I feel good about what’s just happened in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “Being 44 in the world rankings coming into this four-week spell was nothing to be proud of but moving up to 26 and hopefully with a big win this week I can put myself back in a position where I salvage something out of 2014, because it was not looking good.
“I’m coming into a course I like and I have had good success here. I lost to Robert Karlsson in a playoff and obviously Henrik last year. I like the course, I like the set-up and hopefully we can go one better.”
Stenson has shown glimpses of his best form this year but, like Poulter, has plans to round it off on a high.
“Last year was very special and I know it can’t be as special this year because Rory has already won the overall race,” said the Swede, who will partner McIlroy on Thursday.
“But I can make it a very special week for myself by playing well here and hopefully give myself a chance to win. I haven’t defended a title as of yet, so I couldn’t think of a much better place to do it than here this week.”
