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Is Ian Poulter a knob?

Was Poulter right to withdraw?

  • Absolutely, it would be like trying to play with only one arm. Poor Ian.

    Votes: 3 11.5%
  • What a whingng Pomme! Just looking for any excuse!

    Votes: 20 76.9%
  • Who's Ian Poulter?

    Votes: 3 11.5%

  • Total voters
    26

IrishGolfer

Fac ut gaudeam
Supporting Member
Sep 1, 2004
6,542
4,976
Ian Poulter discovering that a replacement for his driver, which had been stolen in Shanghai, would not be ready in time for the start today of the Barclays Singapore Open, forcing Poulter to withdraw from the event.

Just read this and thought to myself, its a different world out there.

The question is would you have played? Come on, there must be a Cobra Tour Van at the tournament, he could have got something very close to what he had. My guess is that he was hitting the ball sideways and looking for any reason not to play. Unless he had some tour prototype shaft in, I can't see why this is an issue. And most pros should have back-up clubs, right. This was stolen a week ago and it takes 4 days to get a new one? CoughBULLSHITcough!!

Anyway enjoy this article from The Times golf correspondent John Hopkins.

It was common in the United States years ago to see Ben Crenshaw in one seat on a plane and no one in the next seat. “Why is that seat not occupied?” Crenshaw was asked. “Because I buy a ticket for Calamity Jane, my putter, so I can take her on the plane with me and put her in the overhead locker,” Crenshaw replied. “That way I know she is going to be safe.”

That was the way it was before the days of lockable and reinforced golf storage bags that could be entrusted to the hold of an aircraft without fear of them being broken. When Crenshaw was at his peak, when he was the best putter in the world, he would no more have been parted from the club with which he was such a wizard than he would from his wallet or house keys.

This came to mind yesterday when word arrived of Ian Poulter discovering that a replacement for his driver, which had been stolen in Shanghai, would not be ready in time for the start today of the Barclays Singapore Open, forcing Poulter to withdraw from the event that has attracted Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els and carries a purse of $5million (about £3.3 million).

Having a driver stolen from a golf bag is rather like a racing driver having a favourite steering wheel taken from his car. No wonder Poulter was upset. “I am really gutted,” the world No 25 said. “I have been thinking about it for four hours and I have decided to withdraw because my new driver will not arrive in time. It is disappointing because I did not come all this way not to play. But with so many world-ranking points at stake, if I played badly [using a different driver], I may have lost ground.”

To some, this may rank as professional golf's equivalent of a toy being thrown out of a pram and that Poulter is known to be a pea**** with a distinctive hairstyle may merely add to this impression. You would not expect to hear of Tiger Woods pulling out of an event because a club had been stolen. He won the US Open last June on one and a half legs and he even played a few holes in the Ryder Cup in 2006 without his nine-iron after Steve Williams, his caddie, lost his balance while cleaning the club and dropped it into a greenside pond.

Those who think Poulter should merely buy another driver from the local pro's shop fail to understand the pecking order in which golfers hold their clubs. Take a putter from a pro's bag the night before the start of a tournament and you might as well steal up behind him and hit him over the head with a brick. He will be furious and unable to find another one with which he can establish any empathy in the short time before he has to tee off.

It would not be the same if, say, an iron were stolen. A professional golfer can get around a feeling of slight unease with an iron by not using it or by simply hitting a shorter club a little harder or going down the shaft of a longer club and swinging more easily.

For putter, read driver. For the club that is used on just about every green, read the club that is used on most of the holes that are not par threes. Since there are usually four short holes on an 18-hole course, that means the driver may be used up to 14 times.

It takes a long time to find a driver that sits behind the ball in a way that is suitable to the player's eye, that feels good in his hands, that has a shaft with which he is comfortable. A professional's driver will have a special shaft and grip. He may have fixed some lead on the bottom of the club to give it more oomph and he may have had the head toed in, to make it a touch hooded, or toed out, to make it open.

In short, the driver is built to the player's specification. It is like a tailor-made suit. Understand that and you understand Poulter a little better. Whether he should have withdrawn is another matter. Other golfers might have made do with another driver or simply gone without. Poulter is different. Always has been, always will be.
 

ClairefromClare

Like my balls?
Jul 23, 2008
2,056
4
I voted, but I haven't a clue what my vote means.

How about a tourney where all of the equipment is identical, off the rack stuff? Just for the heck of it? Or even garden equipment, a la Tin Cup?
 

WelshGolfer

aka Grand-Master-Duff
Jun 7, 2005
153
0
While I think that Mr Poulter has got game, I think it rather silly that he pulled out.
With all these guys talent, there must have been something to get him 280-300 down the fairway?
Why "think" about it for 4 hrs when I am sure that the tour van could have put a few drivers together and he could have range tested them in 2 hrs?
I just think its a bit strange.
 

Pa Jayhawk

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2005
7,196
62
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I think if it meant enough to him that he would pull out of an event, it is just poor preparation in not having a second one readily available.

Now if he retired from golf and said he couldn't go on without that driver, I may feel some sympathy for him. Regardless of the sympathy being in that he is mentally unstable for doing so, it would be sympathy none the less.

Was this driver like the bat in the Natural where it was made from a piece of titanium that was struck by lightning and accounted for all of his ability?

If I lost my putter I would be upset, but I also know specifically what needs to be done with any of my clubs to duplicate the feel. If I made a career of the game, you can bet your butt I would have one more of every club already made, and it wouldn't take 4 days to fly it out if it meant that much to me. This is nothing more than either poor preparation or mental instability on his part.
 

eclark53520

DB Member Extraordinaire
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Dec 24, 2007
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I have come to the conclusion after knowing 4 ian's througout my life that they are all knobs. Why should Poulter be any different?
 

slickpitt

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2006
2,706
3
I probably wouldn't have pulled out.

That being said... I don't think Poulter is a knob. At the Byron Nelson one year I saw him hole out his second on number 10. He signed the ball and gave it to a little kid sitting there... so that makes him knob-immune in my book.
 
OP
IrishGolfer

IrishGolfer

Fac ut gaudeam
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Sep 1, 2004
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  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #7
OK get this. I did a Google on What's in Ian's bag...

In the middle of September 2008 Poulter was sporting, in his own words a “Cobra Pro Speed S 8.5 degrees driver with a Grafalloy Blue shaft with standard Golf Pride grip.”

Again in his own words “Its probably been my best driver so far”.

Now that would be impossible to find in 4 days, right? The Cobra Tour Van must have at least 20 of those bad boys!

Methinks something else is up and it ain't a driver. I wonder if the culprit tries to flog it on eBay!!!;)
 

xamilo

Right Curving Driver....
Supporting Member
Dec 22, 2007
2,924
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I voted, but I haven't a clue what my vote means.
[ /quote]

Neither do I, so I opted for the Who is Ian Poulter just to make it more fun.

By the way, I saw one of the "Not Top Ten" plays last week, and saw Poulter make the most ridiculous back spin and send the ball into the water BEHIND of him. I don't know if that is too much skill, too much bad luck, or he just sucks big time and no one had ever realized so :D
 

MCDavis

The Plaid Duffer
Staff member
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Oct 19, 2006
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He's a knob.

A real man never pulls out due to faulty or missing equipment!
 

mddubya

Hybrid convert
Nov 6, 2007
6,029
2
I think he was looking for an excuse. So I voted the 2nd choice, even though I have no idea what a whingng Pomme is? :faintthud

But I do find it hard to believe he couldn't find a single driver anywhere that would get him in the fairway?
 

MCDavis

The Plaid Duffer
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Oct 19, 2006
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I think he was looking for an excuse. So I voted the 2nd choice, even though I have no idea what a whingng Pomme is? :faintthud
Safe to say it's not a compliment.

Think Jeff....on a good day!! ;)
 

eclark53520

DB Member Extraordinaire
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Dec 24, 2007
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I think he was looking for an excuse. So I voted the 2nd choice, even though I have no idea what a whingng Pomme is? :faintthud

But I do find it hard to believe he couldn't find a single driver anywhere that would get him in the fairway?


Its not quite as bad as a swamp donkey...
 

warbirdlover

Ender of all threads
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Jul 9, 2005
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Expect some cheap copies of his driver to be listed on EBay shortly!! :D

I thought these guys were so good they could play K-Mart clubs and do okay.... :)
 

Pa Jayhawk

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2005
7,196
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Expect some cheap copies of his driver to be listed on EBay shortly!! :D

I thought these guys were so good they could play K-Mart clubs and do okay.... :)
Should be selling like hotcakes. This news just likely changed the percentage of possible non-counterfeit drivers being sold on eBay out of Shanghai to .0001%. :laugh:

edit 1 - .... rather ironic if you think about it, in that the only person in Shanghai selling a non-counterfeit driver is likely the only one that may risk doing jail time. :D
 

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