There was a spell last winter during which the one event that has afforded Ian Poulter such joy, such revered status, was the basis for intense physical pain. Now, just days before the 41st Ryder Cup gets under way at Hazeltine, a meeting of the United States and Europe has reinvigorated the charismatic Englishman.
Poulter would, of course, never lack passion in the context of a Ryder Cup. He would be affronted at the suggestion of manufactured incentive. Still, in piecing together the journey that will see him form part of Darren Clarke’s backroom team as a vice-captain, it is clear this role has relit a competitive fire.
“It is going to be really strange, I have got to be honest,” says Poulter of vice-captaincy business. “I obviously wanted to play but found myself in a situation where I had to take myself out of that equation.
“It is very different. I am not sure how I will feel but I am going to embrace it 100% and give the team all the energy I can possibly give them. It will just inspire me to come back a few weeks later on with a view to making 2018 in France.
“There is plenty of good stuff left in this chassis of mine. I am not giving up the ghost just yet. I still think I have a couple of Ryder Cups in me.”
Poulter’s injury woes had become acute late in 2015, when he struggled through events in Turkey and Dubai with deep pain in the second toe of his right foot. It was subsequently diagnosed as arthritis; the man who has turned out five times for Europe, tasting defeat only once, was thereby presented with a professional dilemma.
“I was crying out for pain relief and that’s why I started a process of cortisone injections,” the 40-year-old explains. “It was only really masking the pain, it only took the edge off it. It got really bad by the Phoenix Open in February and that’s when it became an issue of ‘Shit, what’s the prognosis?’
“It was only early in the season, I wanted to push and make the Ryder Cup team and by doing that it meant more cortisone to try and get through but in the end you just have to say ‘OK, that’s not going to work and we need to address the situation’.”
External chatter surrounded Poulter’s poor results. “That was difficult because it is not for me to openly come out and tell everyone everything,” he says. “You don’t want to let on how hurt you are because some people will see that as a sign of weakness, they might use it against you. I just wasn’t openly telling people about numerous cortisone injections and struggling with pain. I think I open up enough.”
Poulter now has renewed enthusiasm and, perhaps, purpose. His aspirations of returning to the summit of golf should not be disregarded; this is a player who progressed from selling Mars bars in a golf shop and a virtually anonymous amateur career to compete with the world’s best. His propensity for proving doubters wrong is already obvious.
“I am hopeful that I will play the British Masters [in October], which will be brilliant,” Poulter says. “I’d like to play. If I don’t play the British Masters, I’ll play the week after in Malaysia.
“My fitness feels pretty good. I have been working hard on my game over the last three or four weeks and I feel in decent shape. I have no pain in my right foot, which is really good news. I have been working with some laser therapy treatment because I can’t use any more cortisone injections. I have gone down the road of laser therapy, which has helped massively. It has taken away inflammation and pain, which is great news. I have found a treatment which has been pretty successful.
“I haven’t taken anti-inflammatories or painkillers now for four months. Without doing that, I feel a lot better in myself. Long-term effects of taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories are never really good. To find another form of relief has been great. I can do as much practice as I want in a day. I’m fatigued, like everyone else, but there is nothing I can’t do like I was doing back in the day. Everything is back to normal, which is great news.
“There has been a lot going on, on and off the course, and it has been tough but, in a way, having an enforced break has been healthy from a mindset perspective. To have that extra time with the family, to have extra time away from the game, makes me hungry to come back. I really do see it as a good thing.
“The main factor is just being pain free. I have never needed operations, I have had niggles the same as any other golfer after putting his body through 17 years of travel and a heavy playing schedule. I think I’m actually in pretty good shape considering the amount of hours spent hitting balls and sitting on an aeroplane.”
So to the immediate task in hand. In following what feels like European strategy, Poulter agrees with bookmakers. “We’ve had the upper hand,” he says. “We have been the underdogs before, we are the underdogs this time, we have come out on top so many times we can only hope that continues.”
Legitimate underdogs? A team that has won three Ryder Cups in succession? “On paper we are,” Poulter insists. “If you add the world rankings up and average it out, we would have to be the underdogs. How else would you do it? You’d have to say on world ranking points, since the last Ryder Cup the cumulative lowest-ranked players have to be the favourites, right?”
Clarke’s involvement of Poulter may have seemed a no-brainer to the outside world but the captain could still have had doubts over including someone with greater Ryder Cup presence than himself. Admiration here is mutual; Poulter views Clarke as a natural European leader.
“He is an absolute perfectionist,” says Poulter of the 2011 Open champion. “Darren has done a fantastic job so far. He is going into as much detail as he possibly can, he has given us as much detail as he possibly can. He isn’t leaving any stone unturned.
“He has played under great captains and has been a vice-captain. With that knowledge, I think he is going to do a good job. But it is difficult as a captain; once you let the players go on the 1st tee, there isn’t an awful lot you can do. I am going to be feeling that for the first time, the standpoint where you can’t physically intervene.
“I think I will be quite helpful with the rookies. All the vice-captains have been rookies at some stage. It is about making sure the team is comfortable. That’s why you have five different vice-captain personalities there; different players get on with different people.
“It comes down to being able to chat to the players and making sure you are prepared if Darren needs information at a certain time. You have to do your homework so that when it comes down to meetings of captain and vice-captains, you have to come up with a similar answer to what he is thinking. That’s what has been successful for us in the past. There hasn’t been to-ing and fro-ing, there haven’t been last-minute changes. People have been on the same page, have been very thorough.”
Poulter makes no secret of a desire to captain Europe himself in the future. Unlike Lee Westwood, who has pinpointed 2020, Poulter will not offer a specific juncture. “That’s also why it was nice for Darren to ask me this time,” he says. “It was an honour and one day down the road, if I get asked then I have armed myself with experience like this. It will hopefully be very valuable.”
Poulter is understanding of the United States and their task force approach to potentially reviving Ryder Cup fortunes. Unlike Westwood, he sees the vice-captaincy of Tiger Woods in a wholly positive light. “He has won the most majors in the modern era so he can only be talking from experience,” says Poulter. “I can only think whatever Tiger has to add to that team is a good thing. There is no one in the game who is close to what he has achieved in the last couple of decades. You’d think he will bring plenty.”
So should Poulter. Just don’t dare suggest this as the onset of a non-playing journey.
