Ian Poulter on Australia, LIV Golf\u2019s growth and a career defined by perspective<\/a><\/p>\nPoulter, who turned 50 in January, makes his debut in senior golf at the 46th edition of the US Senior Open, and he readily admits he has no idea what to expect. He has a bum knee and an abiding disdain for US Open setups, and he has spent more time shaking hands and getting reacquainted with old friends he hasn\u2019t seen for a number of years than he has hitting golf balls.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust catching up with old friends means quite a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cJust like old friends, school friends you haven\u2019t seen for a long time, it\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, he might be seeing more of his longtime pals in the not-too-distant future. The PGA Tour Champions might be his only reasonable avenue to competition in the coming years.<\/p>\n
With the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia pulling its funding of the LIV Golf League, where Poulter has competed since 2022, the prospects for continuation of the upstart tour appear shaky at best. It is believed that Poulter\u2019s contract with LIV expires at year\u2019s end, and whether or not he re-signs probably hinges on if the league will survive.<\/p>\n
Poulter appeared nonplussed by the uncertainty of LIV\u2019s existence beyond 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo look, I\u2019m confident in what [chief executive] Scott O\u2019Neil and LIV are trying to do,\u201d Poulter told Golf Digest after his pre-tournament press conference. \u201cWe can chat for days on \u2018what ifs\u2019, right? If they do and if they don\u2019t, and if who, you know, it\u2019s one of these, like, moving goalposts. We just don\u2019t know. So, speculating on what I would do, I mean, I don\u2019t know. The amazing thing I think for me is like, I\u2019m 50, I have an option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently suspended by the PGA Tour after he joined LIV, Poulter said he is prepared to sit out a year, as Henrik Stenson and Pat Perez have done, before trying to play on the PGA Tour Champions. He added that he is \u201cpaid up\u201d on his DP World Tour fines, so his access in Europe is secured. \u201cI\u2019m glad they have changed their position from five years ago and just have players play,\u201d said Poulter, who has 12 DP World Tour wins. \u201cI think things would have been extremely different to what golf looks like now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poulter added that a third option is on the table for him. His sons. His oldest, Luke, is a highly ranked amateur who plays for the University of Florida, while his younger boy, Joshua, is improving steadily.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, I\u2019m in a fortunate position to have some options,\u201d Poulter said. \u201cIf nothing else works out, I want to help Luke be the best player he can be, and I want to help Joshua become the best player he can be. This game has been amazing to me through 20-some years, and I want to enjoy it with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his prospects this week at Scioto, which hosts its third US Senior Open, Poulter is mildly optimistic only because he has begun to play better in his past few LIV events \u2013 despite suffering a freak knee injury at the Virginia event in early May. He tore the meniscus in his left knee walking up the clubhouse stairs at Trump National Golf Club in Washington DC. He went on to post what at the time was his best finish of the year, a tie for 18th. He improved on that in his next start with a T-16 in Korea.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty much since [the injury] I\u2019ve played some really nice golf, which makes no sense at all, whether that\u2019s made me swing it a little smoother, I don\u2019t really know,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ball speed hasn\u2019t changed, and I\u2019ve kind of managed that situation with that knee. It\u2019s fine to play on. I can walk comfortably. But my game has trended pretty well this season. I\u2019ve probably played the best I have than any of the previous seasons, even though I\u2019m now 50.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only competition in which he is hesitant to engage is with his son Luke, who is seventh in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Poulter might want to help his son become a better player, but to play alongside him is humbling. In November, Poulter and his sons had a chance to play Augusta National Golf Club, and father admitted that his oldest son \u201cgave me a pretty good hiding\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably haven\u2019t played with him 10 times in the past 12 months because his schedule and my schedule are different. I try to play with him, but I also try not to play with him, if that makes sense, because he hits it 40 yards past me. It\u2019s a bit demoralising, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week at Scioto is different, if only because he is one of the youngest players in the field. Good to be one of the youngsters again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Josh Hedges] Whether Ian Poulter wants to admit it \u2013 and on Tuesday at Scioto Country Club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,43063,280418,85,280419,11766],"class_list":["post-770905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-ian-poulter","tag-scioto-country-club","tag-sports","tag-us-senior-open","tag-usga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}