Tiger Woods and Ian Poulter have history with capital H. As they formed a four-hour morning two ball at Augusta National on Saturday, with hopes of Masters triumph having evaporated at equal time but with contrasting effect, the hope is they reflected on such jousts of old. Woods and Poulter, for different reasons, also contributed so much to the buildup to this major championship.
Poulter infamously laid down his professional credentials in affirmative terms a decade ago. “The trouble is I don’t rate anyone else,” the Englishman said. “Don’t get me wrong, I really respect every professional golfer but I know I haven’t played to my full potential and when that happens, it will be just me and Tiger.”
The ridicule levelled at Poulter for the comment was unfair with regards to his revealing what makes him tick. The prospect of pursuing Woods – Poulter, remember, was a five-handicap player more accustomed to selling chocolate bars than competing with leading amateurs when he turned professional – would provide deep motivation. It was just the Englishman’s style to make this public.
“If people do play well over a period of two years, you can get to No 2. You can’t reach Tiger,” Poulter later explained. “It would be a dream to see Tiger Woods and then me in the world rankings as you look down. What’s wrong with that? Is it being rude? Is it being disrespectful to everybody else? I don’t think so.”
Woods might just have raised an eyebrow. He had plenty more to concern himself with at the time. Lee Westwood was known to have had great fun with Poulter’s claims; he dubbed his compatriot “No 2”. Woods approved. He was later to slap his pretender down in public. “Poulter is always right, isn’t he?” said Woods after Poulter predicted he wouldn’t finish in the top five of the 2011 Masters, when in fact the four-times Augusta champion tied for fourth.
There’s more. In his book *The Big Miss*, a brilliant chronicle of his time coaching Woods, Hank Haney reflects on the time Poulter shared Woods’s private jet back to Florida from a PGA Tour event. “Can you believe this dick mooched a ride on my plane?” read a Woods message to Haney. Poulter offers an entirely different version of events – he did precisely that via his own autobiography – but the sense remains of needle between he and Woods. Time, though, tends to heal such scenarios.
Woods will not like the reality of a scene where Poulter’s comeback actually – albeit only for now and from a higher starting point – outstrips his own. Poulter has clawed his way back from the position where his PGA Tour card was under serious threat to nail down a regular schedule, achieved via second place in last year’s Players Championship. He defied the odds by winning a Masters spot from the last chance saloon, winning the Houston Open in a play-off. The extent of Woods’s personal and injury turmoil emphasises the scale of his challenge in rising back to the top but the blunt reality is that Poulter is the one with a 2018 PGA Tour title to his name.
Woods, understandably, calls for a glance towards the bigger picture. “Six months ago I didn’t know if I’d be playing golf,” the 14-times major champion said after making the cut at Augusta. “Forget playing at tour level, I didn’t know if I’d ever be playing again. But it’s incredible to have the opportunity again, to still come out here and play this golf course.”
Woods signed for a Saturday 72, which kept him on four-over for the Masters. “Hopefully I can get back to even or into the red numbers,” he said of Sunday aspirations. Regardless, Woods will move back inside the world’s top 100 on Monday. “I wish this week would have been a little bit better,” he added.
It is not Woods’s fault that external expectation surrounded the possibility of his making the greatest sporting comeback in history by claiming this Masters. The first major of 2018 owes the 42-year-old a debt of gratitude in respect of how much he raised the tournament’s profile. For good or for bad, golf cannot get away from his magnetic pull.
All reality suggests this remains only the formative stage of Woods’s return from the brink of retirement. He has played just a handful of tournament rounds. For all his time-honoured specialism at Augusta National and certain other major venues, he surely needs to win a standard event before anything like the odds quoted pre-tournament for him to achieve Masters glory could be justified. In technical terms, Woods needs to prevent wild lashes that trigger wayward shots. His three-quarter swings remain far more effective.
Poulter was entitled to relish his Saturday scene with little cause for stress. His 74 meant a moderate slide back, to seven-over. The closing 36 holes may well have been a bonus to the Ryder Cup talisman following the exertions of his Houston victory. It was his first strokeplay win in the United States, delivered in brilliantly exciting circumstances.
“I was always going to be fatigued,” Poulter said. “I’m never going to be fresh, am I, coming into this week? I’m underprepared – I got here Tuesday afternoon, I needed to have a day off from Monday – from a practice perspective, yeah, I’m under-practised, I didn’t get many holes in. I got 18 quick holes in.
“I know this golf course so there’s not really anything I needed to learn. The 10th green might be a fraction slower, the 12th green might be a fraction slower, because they’re the two newly-laid greens. But apart from that the golf course is playing exactly the same.
“There’s a couple of new pin positions. They’re clever in that way because just one yard out on some of the greens can give you a different break. You just have to be aware of that and you have to know your pins, you have to know your lines. That was a long-winded version; yes, it’s hard.”
Poulter and Woods now have more in common than ever before. Hopefully they have realised it. Both have scope to succeed in the back nine of their careers.
• This article was updated on 7 April 2018 after Tiger Woods and Ian Poulter finished their round
