Now let’s see. What is a man to do? Make history in the Ryder Cup or a killing
in the Shark Shootout? Set his sights on one of the world’s biggest sporting
events or go for glory in the Kolon- Hana Bank Korea Open? Ian Poulter spent
two days last weekend weighing up the pros and cons, before eventually
waking at 4am on Sunday with his mind made up. One can only assume that
sleep deprivation clouded his thinking.
England’s most colourful and controversial young player has made a few
mistakes in his time, from wearing an Arsenal strip in the Abu Dhabi
Championship to claiming he would become Tiger Woods’s only rival, but his
decision not to play in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles,
ostensibly so that he can stand by his international schedule, takes a bit
of beating. Not only has he passed up the last chance to qualify
automatically for next month’s showdown in Kentucky, he may also have cost
himself a wild card.
Given that Nick Faldo has not, as the conspiracy theorists believe, guaranteed
him one of his two picks (“hand on heart, swear on my kids’ lives,” says
Poulter), the player’s decision will surely count against him when the
captain makes his announcement this evening. Even if it doesn’t, and Faldo
selects him alongside Paul Casey, Darren Clarke or even Colin Montgomerie,
the 32-year-old will go down in history as the guy who had a chance to play
his way in, but didn’t think it worth the trouble. He will forever be
remembered as the player whose all-important 15th appearance of the year in
the US, needed to maintain PGA Tour membership, had to be made now rather
than in October, when the plan is to put his feet up and prepare for the
silly season. The wheelbarrow needs filling, after all.
So he opted to play in the Deutsche Bank Championship, and promptly missed the
cut by five shots. To complicate matters still further, Casey also gave
himself a free weekend.
If Faldo picks Poulter, he will get it in the neck, from the press, from
Clarke, if it is at the Ulsterman’s expense, and from Montgomerie, should
Scotland’s finest be the fall guy. At Muirfield tomorrow, where Monty has a
pre-arranged corporate commitment, a posse of drooling hacks will be
standing by, waiting for it all to kick off.
Poulter knows he has made a howler, but he hasn’t come this far by succumbing
to self-doubt. When he plays poorly, he pretends otherwise. When he’s in a
hole, he digs himself deeper. “Was it the right decision?” he asked in the
US the other day. “It might have been a mistake. In a lot of people’s eyes,
it was a mistake, but I’ve taken a personal decision and I have to stick by
that.”
If there is any justice, Casey and Clarke will be Europe’s wild cards, but
Faldo is his own man. As the rest of us try to identify two from four —
Montgomerie being the long shot after a wretched season — it would be just
like Faldo to ignore the lot and pluck Ross Fisher or Nick Dougherty from
the hat. He is contrary enough to consider it.
Neither will he care a jot about the adverse publicity he would provoke by
picking Poulter. And there will be plenty of it. Poulter could have made the
team with a top-five finish at Gleneagles, but plumped for the Deutsche Bank
Championship. It was, he reasoned, the only means by which he could qualify
for the last two legs of the lucrative FedEx Cup, and the only way he could
see to keep his PGA Tour card.
While it is just about possible that Faldo subtly indicated his desire to have
him around, the theory that he was “given the nod” doesn’t bear scrutiny.
The player’s denial was convincing, and it wouldn’t have been in the
captain’s interests. Had he guaranteed Poulter a pick, he would still have
asked that the Englishman try to play his way in, and thereby free up
another wild card.
By skipping Gleneagles, and relying on Faldo’s faith in him, Poulter is not
just letting himself down, he is letting the side down. Poulter, who leads
Casey and Clarke in the world rankings, believes he has done enough, but he
has struggled since his second place at The Open, one of only two top-10
finishes this year. Casey has had seven, three in his last five outings.
Like Clarke, Casey has a power game suited to Valhalla, where Paul Azinger,
the American captain, is expected to widen the fairways at 300 yards.
In the world pecking order, Clarke languishes far behind both Englishmen, but
captain’s picks were never meant to be meritocratic. What would be the point
in a pair of selections that merely reflected results? Europe might as well
go with 12 automatic qualifiers. Instead, the two choices are an opportunity
to rectify anomalies in the team, usually through the introduction of
players with form or experience.
Clarke has both. Five Ryder Cups, 13 points and a big, smoking cigar, the very
whiff of which is likely to reduce America’s journeymen to gibbering wrecks.
You have to think Ben Curtis would rather play Poulter than the 40-year-old
Ryder Cup veteran, whose long-standing partnership with Lee Westwood is
another factor in his favour. When it comes to wild cards, Clarke has
previous. At the K Club two years ago, weeks after the loss of his wife, he
dug out all three of the points available to him, two alongside his English
stablemate. Nothing that could happen in Kentucky would begin to match the
pressure he withstood that week.
But, as Montgomerie will find out, experience means nothing without form,
which Clarke has found at the right time. While he hasn’t enjoyed the
consistency of Casey or even Poulter, there have been sporadic bursts of
progress, and in the past month, signs of a return to his brilliant best.
Clarke, who last week won the 19th professional title of his career, is what
wild cards were made for. Whether Faldo agrees is another matter.
Where they stand: the battle to make Faldo’s team
ON THE PLANE
Padraig Harrington (Ire)
The Open and US PGA champion can expect a lead role
Sergio Garcia (Sp)
Runner-up in his last two tournaments and great cup record
Lee Westwood (Eng)
Another inform player likely to feature in all five series
Henrik Stenson (Swe)
One of Europe’s best performers of the last two years
Robert Karlsson (Swe)
Out with a neck injury but expected to be fit in time
Miguel Angel Jimenez (Sp)
Dependable veteran who may pair up with Garcia
Graeme McDowell (NI)
Rookie hungry for action (see interview on opposite page)
ON THE BRINK
Justin Rose (Eng)
Almost certain to make his debut following a solid showing in Gleneagles
Soren Hansen (Den)
Appears to have the ninth place secured after three strong rounds
Oliver Wilson (Eng)
Brave effort to make the cut and crucially now holds his fate in his own
hands
Ross Fisher (Eng)
Needs to finish well today and Wilson to struggle
Nick Dougherty (Eng)
The Faldo protege must do no worse than climb into the top two and hope that
Wilson falls well down the field
ON THE EDGE
Darren Clarke (NI)
Victory last week and a decent showing at Gleneagles have seen him leapfrog
his rivals. Has a strong cup record, particularly in partnership with Lee
Westwood
Paul Casey (Eng)
Coming into form in the last month, playing most of his golf in the US, but
has he left it too late?
Ian Poulter (Eng)
Surprised many by not playing at Gleneagles but is close to Faldo and
impressed at The Open
Colin Montgomerie (Sco)
Played well in Gleneagles until yesterday and now the man who has never lost
a Ryder Cup singles match looks set to miss out
